Stories from the beach

Today I took myself to the beach for a walk

– just a walk.

I love the sea,

and especially walking beside it.

Right now I am so grateful to all the people and for all the occasions that created associations for me,

the association of happy anticipation … with the smell of the sea,

the association of joy … with the feel of soft sand,

and the association of profound, uplifting peace … with the sight of the waves.

Today I was mindful of those associations.

Those emotions, that experience, brings to the fore so many stories,

and with those, then I can create so many meanings,

meanings about who I am, who I was, who I can be, and how I might live.

so many ways forward.

………………………………………..

There are other associations in my life –

fear at a particular tone of voice,

deep sadness at certain expressions,

stress from certain phrases.

The thanks for those comes a bit more reluctantly but it’s there

as I learn to see the stories,

the meanings,

the ways forward.

For me, being relaxed and aware, rather than bound up in productivity and focus, today, I am so glad I could experience the emotions brought on by the smells, the texture and the sight of the sea – brought on, brought up from my inner being, my cells.

And being aware, could then find the stories – so many – of family, of romance, or play and friends, of times and places – all hidden in my memories but also in the cells of my body where emotions are all stored- the sadnesses, the hurts, the joys and the love.

Let me extrapolate to the public speaking course I am creating – “story-based and holistic”, I am calling it.  Because though most of my speaking and writing training gave me the impression I should be creating my speeches and essays using very logical, structured methods, deep down my most successful works have been taken from within – from that place that stores the emotions, that stores the stories.  And my structures were all story-based – not narratives but based on the science and art of story-telling, even before I knew such a thing existed.

So it is really a culmination of decades of public speaking experience that I can now call on, in this exciting new story-based, holistic context, as I put together a different way of teaching public speaking.