Creativity Above All Else

British comedian, improviser, storyteller, actor, writer, musician as featured on Australia’s ABC and the UK’s BBC. Living in Nijmegen, NL, where he moved from Brisbane, AU, Steven has toured and performed in famous comedy clubs and festivals around the world alongside acts such as Stephen Carlin, Damien Power and Greg Shapiro. Since moving to The Netherlands, he has become a cast member, performer and teacher with Amsterdam’s easylaughs, is a regular on the English-language scene around mainland Europe and hosts the popular comedy night LYFAO in Nijmegen. He is one half of Tru2U, was a former performer and teacher with Eindhoven’s Chili Con Comedy and is the host of Real Power Talk, a comedy interview series launched in conjunction with the media company All Things Loud. 

Steven Morgan’s Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok

Story-Power episode 24, “Every Life is a Library”

David Sedaris, writer, actor

The Mezrab storytelling school in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The Magic of Belle Isle (2012) Rob Reiner, Director, Morgan Freeman, Virginia Madsen, Madeline Carrol, Stars

Bridgend, Wales, United Kingdom

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

PodMatch

This episode is brought to you by PodMatch, the dating service for podcasters. They introduced me to Steven Morgan, 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 and tell them Lucinda sent you.

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. You may have seen my Story-Power posts here. If you’re passionate about stories too, and want to talk about your favorite stories, come join me at either SageWoman.life, or patreon.com/StoryPower

A Month of Gratitude

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

“The purpose of the storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” ~ Brandon Sanderson, fantasy and science fiction writer

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.” ~ Robert McKee, professor

This month my posts will be about gratitude. 

Today, I’m taking a little break from working on the online course I’m creating. It’s all about what I have learned from my many years of analyzing stories starting with the family movie nights when I was a very young child.

I am extremely fortunate to have had parents who used stories, one of the oldest teaching tools, to help me understand what it means to be a human being. I’m grateful that they were open minded and were willing to explore any questions that my siblings and our friends had about what was going on in the world, or in our personal lives. More than once my friends said with envy in their voices, “You’ve got the cool parents.” It was true and I’m extraordinarily grateful for that fact.

I loved those movie nights because I connected with my parents in a unique way. The discussions taught me some valuable life skills. I learned that no matter where we come from, humans have lots of things in common. We all want to be loved, to be listened to and understood, and we want to be appreciated for who we are. If we don’t get those things, we can do some pretty horrendous things. 

I also learned great communication and critical thinking skills, compassion, and empathy for others from the stories we dissected. Humans are mysterious and emotional creatures. And analyzing stories has helped me understand that when our emotions are out of control, we don’t make good decisions.

So, thanks Mom and Dad for helping me find a meaningful purpose in life. I hope to pass along my love of stories, and what I continue to learn from them, through all my creative projects.

As this year comes to a close, I hope you share what you’re grateful for with us. 

Thank you so much for reading, liking and commenting. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy lives to read my musings.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2022

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.

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.

PodMatch

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.

Respect Your Fellow Voters

Photo by Edmond Dantu00e8s on Pexels.com

Election day is just around the corner. Barry and I voted early. There have been problems with voter intimidation in our state, but fortunately not in our county. The thing is everyone of us has a different set of values, which is fine. But I can’t make you adopt my values if yours are different than mine and visa versa. So, the voter intimidation thing is not only illegal, it’s also useless. I mean, the people being intimidated are putting their ballots into the drop boxes. They already voted and sitting there with an automatic weapon trying to get them to not drop their ballots into the box is pointless. I’m not sure what the people with the guns, and masks, think they’re doing. Do they expect the voters to be so afraid that they tear up their ballots? Not likely. Fortunately, they have been reported and measures are being taken to stop them.

Shortly after I saw the stories about the men with guns, I also saw a meme that I love. “WE all do better, when we ALL do better.” This is an idea I come back to over and over again. If everyone on the planet had a roof over their heads, food on the table, meaningful work and the chance at the education of their choice, the world would be a happier place in which to live. We wouldn’t need to be in competition with each other. Because this is what I hope we finally get to, equity of money and opportunities, I feel sad for the people who don’t understand that there is enough to go around for everyone. 

Stephen Colbert had a sad and funny segment this past week about the ultra-wealthy trying to figure out how to extend their lives and keep their wealth for themselves alone if some apocalyptic event happens. This was based on an article by Douglas Rushkoff in The Guardian, “The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse”. As Stephen shared the details of the article and made jokes about the absurdity of these ultra-wealthy men’s plans, all I could think was, “How did they lose their humanity?” But the thing is, when we get paralyzed by fear, we do stupid things.

I ask myself, what can I do to dispel the terrible fear that is gripping so many people in the world right now? The only answer I have come up with is to be calm and reasonable myself. If enough of us turn away from desperation to realize that we’re all in this together, eventually we’ll live in a better world.

That’s all for today. I’m busy putting the finishing touches on my online course videos so I can upload them next week.

By the way, I’m looking for students willing to test it out for free. The title is, “Saving the World One Story at a Time.” It’s 17 sessions. Most videos are between 10 and 15 minutes long. There are fun action steps for you to do, like watching the opening sequences of a movie, or telling the class members about your favorite characters and what you learned from them. If you’d like to take the class for free, let me know. I’ll send you a coupon code once it’s up and running on Ûdemy. All I ask is that you write an honest review or give the course a star rating.

Thank you all for reading, liking and commenting. I appreciate your time.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2022

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.

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.

PodMatch

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.

The Power to Speak Naked

Sean Tyler Foley is an accomplished film and stage performer and has been acting in film and television since he was 6 years old after his father passed away suddenly in a motor vehicle accident. He has appeared in productions including Freddy Vs Jason, Door to Door, Carrie, and the musical Ragtime. Tyler is passionate about helping others confidently take the stage and impact an audience with their stories. He is currently the Managing Director of Total Buy In and author of the #1 best-selling book The Power to Speak Naked.

Tyler is a father, husband, son, and performer, in that order. Some days he feels like he has dabbled in every industry on the planet, from oil and gas, to aviation, to film and television, but that diverse experience is what has made him so versatile!

Regardless of the industry or the titles he has held, what they all had in common was promoting and encouraging people to be heard and understood. The skills and resources he has garnered along the way have enabled him to become an entertaining professional speaker and a knowledgeable trainer, who inspires others to reach for their dreams.

With his distinct and direct style, Tyler is emerging as one of North America’s sought-after leaders in the field of public speaking for personal and professional development and would welcome the opportunity to be on your show and discuss the lessons he has learned and the grace he has discovered in each event of his life!

Sean Tyler Foley’s Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Book: The Power of Speaking Naked

Tony Robbins, Motivational Speaker Website

Les Brown, Motivational Speaker Website

Harv Eker, Business Speaker Website

Maren Ord Burnham, Feather Pen Fairy Tales, YouTube

Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Darmok”, (1991) Season 5, Episode 2

Michelle, Reiki Master, Crystal healer, Health and Vitality Coach, and more.

Brandie Sedore HeartMath Mentor/Coach @HeartMath

Gregg Braden, Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer

Willy Taylor, Drag Queen Mentor

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

PodMatch

This episode is brought to you by PodMatch, the dating service for podcasters. They introduced me to Tyler Foley, 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 and tell them Lucinda sent you.

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.

Our Thoughts Create Our Reality

Human Brain Thinking

“Change your thought and you’ll change the world.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~ Wayne Dyer

You know how you hear a maxim and it resonates with you, but it’s difficult to implement? Well, the maxim that I’ve been trying to implement for years is “Our thoughts create our reality.” 

Just this morning I was thinking about my morning thought routine and realized that if I want to have a better life, I have to think differently. It takes diligence to switch to a new thought playlist. I don’t know about you, but I’m rather attached to my playlist. It’s familiar and in a way comforting. But my playlist is made up of stories I made up in my head long ago that weren’t true and I never thought to challenge, until now. 

I’ve been taking “quests” with Mindvalley and each quest has shaken up my thinking so that now I’m looking at my playlist and realizing that it has held me back for a long time.

I’m nearly finished with the editing process of the 19 videos for my online course, “Saving the World One Story at a Time.” And one thing I kept hearing myself say in those videos was that we make up stories in our heads and think they’re true, when most of the time there not. I guess what I said in those videos hit home for me, because today, I’ve decided that I’ve got to make a new, more positive thought playlist so I can expand my influence, and even my prosperity. Staying at home creating is nice, but at some point I will need to go out and connect with a broader group of people. 

My thoughts not only create the reality of my personal life, they create what’s going on in the world as well. Collectively our thoughts create the events that are going on in the world around us. I hope we start seeing the world as a friendly place rather than listening to the news outlets that get ratings by shouting about all the bad things happening in the world. When we do change our thinking and begin to see the neighbors next door, or the people we work with, our family and friends, or even our public leaders as beings of light rather than as people with lots of problems, or as scum bags, the world will change. Everyone has their struggles, and everyone has opportunities to heal and grow. I want to encourage all of us to heal and grow from our mistakes, and thus change the way we think.

That’s all I have for today. Just sharing my current thought playlist for you.

Welcome to my new followers and thank you to all of you who read and like or comment on these posts.

Have a blessed weekend.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2022

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.

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. You may have seen my Story-Power posts here. If you’re passionate about stories too, and want to talk about your favorite stories, come join me at either SageWoman.life, or patreon.com/StoryPower.

PodMatch

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.