Sage Woman Chronicles

I Know! I’m a Month Early

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I know it’s Mother’s Day, and I love my mother very much and hope she has a great day. We don’t live in the same city, but I will be calling her for a chat.

Even in spite of the day, lately I’ve been thinking about my Dad. I miss the conversations he and I used to have about the stories we’d watch together. It was fun examining every detail and finally coming to state the most important themes. Stories where the characters grew into loving relationships of all kinds were our favorites.

Sometimes I wonder what Dad would think of some of the new stories being told in movies and TV today. I think he would love Ted Lasso. We could have had some lively discussions about all the characters, but I would most especially love to talk with him about Roy Kent. Roy is an irascible, curmudgeonly character who surprises the other characters and the audience by sharing some of the most loving moments in the show.

After he becomes one of the coaches of the Richmond team, Jamie Tartt’s father bursts into the locker room and spreads toxicity on everyone, but especially Jamie. Once he’s taken away by security, everyone in the locker room is stunned. What does Roy do? He walks up to Jamie and just hugs him, even though they have had their differences in the past. This demonstration is a turning point for the team.

Roy’s relationship with his young niece, Phoebe is adorable. She loves him so much even though he’s just as curmudgeonly with her as he is with everyone else. But he shows his love for her every time they are together, especially the Christmas when she’s devastated that a boy in her class gave her mouth care products because her breath was so bad. What does Roy do? He and his girlfriend, Keeley, take Phoebe to every house in the neighborhood until they find a dentist who helps Phoebe with her breath.

In the episode that aired this week, Roy showed his big heart again when the Captain of the team was thrown out of the game for going into the stands to confront a toxic “fan” who was spewing terrible epithets at him. What does Roy do? He talks with the Captain and points out that probably he wasn’t mad at the fan, but about something else. Then he takes over the press conference and does a Tedism and tells a story about something from his life that proves that we can never know what challenges the person next to us is going through. He acknowledges that, yes, what the Captain did was wrong. But “I give him love.” Because why he did it was none of his, Roy’s, business, implying it wasn’t the press’s business either.

The main thing I love about the show is that even though the main characters have their ups and downs they always come back to healthy relationships. To me, the show is mostly about the loving male relationships. Through Ted’s optimism and understanding of human emotions, he helps the team members learn to become brothers and openly express their love for each other. There are also women in the show, Rebecca, the owner of the team, and Keeley, the marketing guru. Their friendship is a great example of how lots of women support each other in real life. But more than that, all the men respect both Rebecca and Keeley as well, which is really nice to see.

I’ve noticed that there are a number of movies and TV series, where the relationships, especially among the men develop into mature and loving rather than competitive and combative. Maybe the tide is turning and we’re getting tired of seeing toxic males killing each other. I hope so because men need deep friendships and emotional support just as much as women do. I think Dad and I could have some deep and interesting conversations about the changing dynamics of human relationships being portrayed in stories today.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the U.S. and to my own Mom. She loves stories too, but we haven’t had a chance to discuss any of her favorites in a while since she’s been suffering some health issues. We hope she’s on the mend, though, and will be back to reading and watching her favorite stories again.

Here’s to building healthy relationships with our family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.

Blessings,

Saving the World One Story at a Time

The world is in such chaos right now that sometimes we need to get a perspective on what’s happening. I designed this course on Ûdemy for people who are looking for a way to get a better understanding about what it means to be a human being. Stories are one great way to walk in the shoes of the characters, connect with them emotionally and learn from their mistakes. Then taking what you’ve learned and use it out in the real world. It’s learning in a fun way! If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, I hope to see you in class.

Special May discount at: https://lnkd.in/gBp4hm4H

Story-Power on Patreon

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast and Patreon communities so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. If you’re passionate about stories too, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower.

The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, after the last few years, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a podcast where she and her guests discuss their creative endeavors, and/or the stories that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

PodMatch – Dating service for podcasters

If you are a podcaster, or have a message or fantastic product you want to share with the world, I encourage you to check out PodMatch. Use the affiliate link and tell them, Lucinda sent you. Then contact me so we can set up a Story-Power chat.

Communication is Vital: Stories Can Help

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“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

Shaun loves storytelling and has a passion for empowering Christians to share their untold children’s stories with the world. He believes that we all have been created with a story worth telling – if you’re brave enough to tell it!

Shaun is a certified NLP master practitioner with years of experience helping people overcome fear, limiting beliefs, and helping them achieve those things put on their hearts by God. He is on a mission to get more positive, wholesome, and God- honouring stories out in the world.

Fun Facts:

Shaun is in a band.

He enjoys doing voice overs.

Acting in Musical Theatre with St Albans theatre group is his passion.

Writing Credits:

Flappy and Whiskers Go to the Park (Children’s book)

“When Two Journey” (article)

“When the Lights are Dim” (article)

“Overcoming Fear of Tech” (article)

“How Do You Know When You are Good Enough” (article)

“How God Speaks to Us in Our Dreams” (article)

Appeared on St Albans Podcast

Shaun’s Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Website

Story-Power on Patreon

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Those Lovely Intangibles

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“Look, Doris, someday you’re going to find that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn’t work. And when you do, don’t overlook those lovely intangibles. You’ll discover they’re the only things that are worthwhile.” Fred Gailey in Miracle on 34th Street

We live in a materialistic world. It appears that the things we value most are things we can touch, taste, and see. For example, our house and furnishings, car, clothes, jewelry, expensive vacations and the like. But what if those things were not worth as much as things like, kindness, compassion, love, joy, connection, and all the other things that aren’t considered very important because they “don’t put food on the table.”

Having a roof over one’s head and putting food on the table are important for all of us, but what happens if that’s all we provide our families? I don’t remember the context but I was talking with a teacher who said she asked her elementary school students to write about what their families did at dinner time or what their evening activities were like. She was appalled when several of her students wrote that they went home to their rooms did their homework, and played games on their computers, got their dinners and went back up to their rooms and watched their favorite TV show, or continued to play games until bed time. There seemed to be very little family interaction. If that’s the case in a lot of families, no wonder there are so many depressed and angry people in the world.

Human beings are emotional creatures. We need to be nurtured with love, kindness, and understanding. We need to practice conversing with others learning to share our opinions and listen to others share theirs. Relationships are probably the most important thing that sustains us. If we don’t have a support system our lives can be extremely bleak. We can’t really get human connection by watching TV, listening to music, podcasts, or watching YouTube videos. Being in the room with another human being, and even touching them from time to time is vital to our physical health. We only have to look at the news to see the tragedies caused by lack of human connection.

I was at the doctor this week for a physical and she asked me if I had a support system. She wanted to know if I had people I could talk to if something emotional happened to me. I told her I do, though they don’t all live here. And as I was driving home, I remembered a study I read someplace, maybe Psychology Today, that said that we only need a small circle of close friends and or family as our trusted support system to remain healthy. I’m fortunate to have that.

Living on this planet is difficult but having healthy relationships helps us navigate the tough times. How do we create healthy relationships? That’s one of the questions I ask myself all the time. As a teacher, I suggested that we could learn the good and not so good aspects of relationships by analyzing stories and then applying what we’d learned out in the real world. But I’m not sure I ever emphasized that being vulnerable is part of creating great relationships. And yet, I was teaching acting. That’s one of the most vulnerable things a person can do, try to understand and portray a character. It’s risky to be vulnerable. We’re taught not to show our true emotions to others because if we do, we’ll probably be thought of as weak. Maybe that’s why actors are often not respected as much as lawyers, doctors, bankers, CEO’s of big businesses or politicians. An actor’s job is to be vulnerable and dig deep into the emotional lives of the characters they play. I have learned to value their work because I’ve learned so much from what they’ve shown me about myself and my fellow human beings.

I’ve written all this to state that I have been struggling with the fact that what I do in my business is not tangible. Everything I do is about the ideas and emotional experiences shared in stories by the writers and sometimes demonstrated by actors. I use what happens to the characters in the stories I consume to examine my own life. Since I was a little girl, I have felt that part of my purpose was to learn to love myself, so I could pass on that love to others. But for the most part, I’ve not been paid a whole lot of money for that. And I have asked myself, does that matter? It would be nice to make a lot of money, yet, what is success? Increasingly my answer is, I’ll be successful if I can help others improve their relationships. If the people I touch with this blog, my podcast, and online course learn to acknowledge and manage their emotions, become vulnerable and build deep and loving relationships, then I’ve accomplished my goals.

I’ve also realized that striving for the most toys isn’t really success at all. As the title of a famous classic movie states, You Can’t Take it With You. But we can take all the love and connections with us. Those lovely intangibles stay with us forever.

Here’s to sharing some lovely intangibles this weekend with your friends and family.

Blessings,

Saving the World One Story at a Time

Special Coupon Code for May

Analyzing stories gives us CRITICAL DISTANCE from things that have happened to us. That’s why I’m hooked on stories. I get to examine my own life by watching the characters go through their emotional ups and downs. If that sounds like something you’d like to try, you might want to consider taking my course Saving the World One Story at a Time. Special May discount at: https://lnkd.in/gBp4hm4H

Patreon

The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

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Stories: Not Just for Entertainment

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“We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.” ~ Joseph Campbell

“Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses.” ~ Aleks Krotoski, author, broadcaster, journalist and social psychologist

I’m a huge story nerd. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that. And yet, I’m not sure I ever wrote a post about why I became a story nerd and what I’ve learned from analyzing stories.

It all started when I was a child. My parents instituted movie night. Don’t blame my parents for not reading to us. My mom worked and was tired at the end of the day. My dad had dyslexia which made it hard for him to read out loud. But they were big on education and wanted us to learn about how to get along with the people around us, so … family movie night.

We didn’t just watch the movie and say, “Wow! That was a great movie.” Nope, we sat and discussed the movie during commercial breaks and after the movie was over. My dad would ask lots of questions about which characters we liked and why. We’d ask questions about why the characters acted as they did. And in the end we’d talk about what the story meant to us.

Of course as we grew we learned to pay attention to things like body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, as well as the lines, to get clues about what the characters were really thinking and feeling. Unless you’ve taken a communication class, you might not realize that listening is a huge part of good communication. And paying attention to non-verbal cues is part of listening.

Have you noticed that sometimes what a person says doesn’t match their body language? When that happens, it doesn’t necessarily mean the person is lying. But it is a clue that maybe there is more to the story than they are telling. Or maybe they think they’re telling the truth, because they haven’t figured out their emotional stuff quite yet. That kind of situation just let’s me know to continue to pay attention, and ask more questions.

I didn’t realize it as I was growing up, but I was learning other vital things that makes interacting with those around me more understandable, and even sometimes more graceful. Once I started studying theatre, though, I began to understand that analyzing every little detail of a character’s experiences, emotions, and actions in a play was allowing me to hone my critical thinking skills and the complexities of human behavior and emotions. Much later I understood that I was deepening my ability to be compassionate, empathetic, and to develop emotional intelligence.

I’m telling you this short version of what I’ve learned from stories because I’m concerned about the trend in education and the media to tout the S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines as the end all and be all to save the world. NOPE! The arts teach us how to understand our emotions and each other much better than solving mathematical proofs does. Don’t get me wrong. S.T.E.M. is important, but what good is it to go to the Moon if we can’t get along with each other once we get there?

There have been lots of studies about how taking classes in the arts are highly beneficial. Here are 10 things we can learn from the arts: 1) Creativity, 2) Confidence, 3) Problem Solving, 4) Perseverance, 5) Focus, 6) Non-verbal Communication, 7) Receiving Constructive Feedback, 8) Collaboration, 9) Dedication, 10) Accountability.

I can honestly say that I’ve seen students who were terrified to perform in front of the class at the beginning of a semester, blossom and be able to perform without fear by the end. One student even told me that being in my acting class helped him feel more confident when he had to give presentations for other classes, or at work. I particularly like #8, collaboration. If we all developed that skill, wouldn’t the world be a much happier place in which to live?

I wrote all of that to explain why I created my online class, Saving the World One Story at a Time. Stories are not only a fun way to learn, but they give us a bit of distance from our own problems and maybe even help us see ways to solve them without having to go through long and painful self-examination. The writer and characters do part of the work for us.

From time-to-time, I will probably give suggestions of stories I’ve learned a vital lesson from. I hope you will take the time to share one or two with us as well.

I hope you are enjoying the changing seasons.

Blessings,

Saving the World One Story at a Time

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The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Creativity is Wisdom

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“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

I am an Austrian-Californian multimedia Artist, educator, author of 5 art-related books, podcaster, coach, creative advisor and former Newport Beach CA arts commissioner. Fluent in German and English.

I’m an outside the box thinker, who is a passionate creativity/awareness researcher that looks for true values of humanity outside of any man-made system. I have discovered a paradox: 95% of worldwide artists are existing around the poverty level, but they love to create so much they are proud to be poor. But without creativity there are no man-made systems, there would be no world as we know it.

The solution: I discover patterns within Art that foster creative communication and identify art values outside any systems which always raise our human potential.

Michaell MICHAELLM.com #TheSmartofArt

https://michaellm.com/self-aware-art-education

Contact Michaell on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

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This episode is brought to you by PodMatch, the dating service for podcasters. They introduced me to Michaell Magruche, and I’m so glad they did. I hope you’ve enjoyed our conversation and remember that if you have a podcast or something to share with the world, check out PodMatch at my affiliate link at PodMatch and tell them Lucinda sent you.

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