Blowing on the embers of a fire

Storyteller Elizabeth Ellis refers to storytelling in community as “blowing on the embers of a fire.” The sacred truths of this world are hidden within the reality of human experience. The language of that experience is story.  It’s through story that communities are bound, through story that individual identities are formed, and through story that the Sacred is revealed. In this time of uncertainty, we often find ourselves lonely, anxious, spiritually malnourished, desperately in need of community and care. We have to find new ways of being together, new ways of connecting across our many differences.

Maybe the light that dispels the darkness is found in one another. Maybe the peace that we long for waits to be accessed in one another. Maybe if we’ll take the time to speak honestly and listen deeply to one another we’ll find the warmth that we all hope to embody.

This is the heart of every Hearth gathering. Story as relationship. You will experience this at our one-day workshop on the art and craft of storytelling. Or by gathering with us this coming February (if you live in Southern Oregon) for our first Hearth storytelling event in two years. Or by taking a deep-dive and participating in one of our six-month certificate trainings in community storytelling.

Gathering to share stories is a communal practice for dismantling illusions of us and them, friend and enemy, holy and profane. Story, when told from one heart to another, can draw us into the mystery of kinship that spans all human divisions. It is within that bright circle where we might discover the peace, creativity, and joy that can sustain us.

-Mark Yaconelli