Stories from the heart

Stories from the Heart, for the third time the women of Story Circle Network (http://www.storycircle.org/) joined to share their stories at a weekend conference in Austin the first weekend in February. It provided such inspiration that I had to mull a while before writing about it. Well over 100 women joined in. We wrote, we read, we listened.
Why tell your stories? One red cowgirl-hatted widowed grandmother lugged a huge book she’d prepared for her family and her family alone. It begins with story of her parents’ romance and ends with an account of her ballroom dancing exploits with her new “best friend.” Others have are writing their stories as memoirs for publication (many have already been published) or are crafting their experiences into fictions. As many reasons as the many women.
We focused on strength and truth—how telling the truth gives a woman strength and how strong women do not step away from telling the truth.
Timely, indeed, for truth-telling has been much in the news in recent days with the long discussions of what is a memoir, what is fiction, what is memory? Our memories are our own. No one else can change them. Through the years I’ve almost joked, almost fought with my sister about our differing memories of the same events. We’ve finally called truce realizing that these two people have different—but still true—stories.
The fine climax of the Conference was Susan Albert’s final talk about strong women and tale-telling. She took a deep, wonderful and strong approach—sharing her own truth. And she keeps on sharing. There is a link to the speech on the Story Circle website. Scroll down the left side index until you find it—it’s under “Who We Are.” Then post a comment here! Trilla and Susan are sharing coffee and stories in the picture.
I’ll be writing more about truth-telling and memory. I promised myself that I’d start a childhood memoir as soon as I got home. I did! And already, I’m facing some of those hard issues.