Tuesday 28 August 2018

I woke up today after another night of dreams with a common theme of confusion, mischief, chaos, unpredictable and disconnected people, places and events.

It’s a quite uncomfortable, if somewhat exhausting, way to wake.

That’s two nights in a row.

Something’s up. But how to locate that “something”?

While I was out walking this morning, it came to me: “It’s the stories.”

 

Sometimes my intuition speaks loud and clear – if you spend any time with us on this journey you’ll get used to that.

 

It made perfect sense.

The mischief, the mix-ups, the confusion. Like little hot-spots of chaos.

This past week I’ve heard myself saying: “We’re not going on a trip … it’s a story-harvesting-mission”.

We’ve also been talking about how we can pinpoint the stories on a map.

 

What if those very same stories don’t want to be “harvested” or “pin-pointed”?

 

What if they have an energy and a life of their own?

Who are we to step boldly and stir up these stories that have laid quietly in their place?

It’s got me thinking.

About the ethics of story finding, story collecting, storytelling.

 

Just because the people in the story are long-dead doesn’t mean we can do whatever we will with the stories.
Even if our motivation is good.

 

Story telling is not a benign activity.

I’ve understood this in the context of the people in the story being alive. But what about times long past and people long ago laid to rest?

 

Jack and I have talked about The Ancestors and their interest in what we are attempting to do.

So, this week we are off to have a cuppa with Barney & Lizzie at their grave.

We started this project with a visit to them back in February 2018.

It’s time for an update chit-chat and seek their protection for this next leg of the journey.

Celtic ways of knowing.

I’ve been thinking about the TEDx talk our cousin Pip Desmond gave about Ethical Storytelling. You might like to check it out:

 

Sarah