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 The following are stories submitted to us by readers. If you haven't yet joined in, we invite you to click the link at the bottom of this page to share YOUR story with the Storycatcher community.
The Ear in the Heart
Learning to listen with the ear in the heart enhances our ability to become a Storycatcher. By making agreements about sharing conversation and the responsibility for listening, we help to hold the story space. Recognizing the need for deliberate conversation in place of speaking merely to hear the sound of one's voice increases the power of story for all participants. And writing takes the power of story onto the page, where we can practice the narrative of our lives, looking for what has heart and meaning.
When did you claim the right to speak or write your own life?
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Readers' Responses:
"I am still claiming the right to speak and write my own life. I began in my twenties, when I began to create the mountain of journals that occupy several crates in my basement. With every one filled, I write another chapter of my time here on earth, capture the characters that have painted my life in bright colors, and learn more lessons on the art of living in the human community."
Anonymous "Two days before my 21st birthday - the Thursday before Easter, I had a routine physical. I was home from college for spring break and had promised my mother that I would finally go. I mentioned to our family doctor that I had a minor illness a month or so earlier and that the "townie" doctor who examined me in the college clinic was particularly attentive to my thyroid. After explaining that I had taken thyroid medication for a short while as a younger child, he proceeded to deal with the sinus infection that brought me to the clinic in the first place.
However, our family doctor was more concerned. He checked my thyroid gland, immediately had me get up, dress, and go straight to the local hospital to take the medication that would allow me to have a thyroid scan the next day, on Good Friday. Our family doctor was a life long friend of my mother's and he called her while I was at the hospital to explain his concern and the urgency for the test.
Mom accompanied me to the hospital on Friday for the scan. My twenty-first birthday was on Saturday. My parents and our doctor insisted that I not return to school on Monday, as planned, but wait until Tuesday when the results would be available.
When the phone rang on Tuesday, I joined the conversation between my mother and doctor on another phone. My mother insisted that I get off, ordered me to get off, wouldn't hear anything else but that I get off the phone. Finally, I gulped and spoke straight to the doctor. "I'm twenty-one and I will not give you permission to discuss this with my mother unless I am on the phone." I've always admired the way he paused and then told my mother that he would explain the results to me while she listened, with my permission. He proceeded to tell me that the test showed that I had thyroid cancer, fortunately detected in the earliest stages. I had surgery about a month later and have had no further problems with cancer in thirty-four years.
I do still have to gulp and take the respsonsibility to speak up for myself occasionally but this moment reminds me of how important it might be. "
lhgece@hotmail.com "In 1999 at the age of 37 I commenced an Applied Science Masters Degree at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. There were a lot of firsts for me in attending. My first flight, the first time I had been on my own, the first time in Melbourne.
I felt the need to share what I knew to help me belong to this group of people. Whenever the opportunity arose no matter how small the space, I would contribute to the group discussion.
It wasn’t until I attended a week long workshop that at a final plenary a large silence arose. I sat there tired and listened to the space the silence had created, when a small voice said “Finally I can speak”. “The rest of you fill the spaces so quickly I have not been able to contribute until now.” The words this person chose to share with us were so full of wisdom and made matters discussed so clear I wished I had been able to hear them earlier in the week.
With tears streaming down my face I apologised to the girl. I was one of those people who filled the spaces not allowing her to speak.
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Thanks to Christina for providing a space to share. Jan "I had a dream many years ago that was the catalyst in beginning to speak about my life. In the dream I had huge silver braces that were over both my upper and lower teeth so that my mouth was shut. I was very upset and was crying as I couldn\'t talk at all and was very uncomfortable. Then I realized that I could cut the braces with large clippers. I sat there silently while I cut one brace after another. My mouth was very sore, but I kept cutting. I woke up after all but one brace was cut. I recounted the dream to my women\'s group and from that moment on, I was able to let my self and my voice come to life."
Sue, Toronto, I haven't remembered this dream for years "I started in 1991,but before that always in my mind.
My mother passed away that year.It was always just the two if us.She was a brave women who had me out of wedlock in 1941.I was looking for something. I started
with a book by Maria Harris, Dance of the Spirit. I still read it today. Then I discovered Lifes Companion and knew I had found my outlet. Thru all the following years I have kept a journal Thru addiction and terrible losses,I have foundand still look for peace and answers.They come to me because I did claim the right to write my life."
alfibubba@msn.com
Click here to answer this question with a story from your own life >>
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