Sept 2009 Writing Newsletter
Re-story, re-imagine Life
and Work
Stop Press: The Joy
and Call of Stories
A practical 6 session
Find the Story teller inside… raise your story IQ. (see item 4 below)
Give me back
the soul I had as a boy matured in fairy tales (Lorca)
[
Dear writer, storyteller, reader, traveller, lover of words, images, silences…
There is a Chinese textile exhibition
in SA (in Stellenbosch during Aug) which features many embroidered baby carriers
- celebrating the child. Wordsworth believed, “Heaven
lies about us in our infancy.” J. Robert Oppenheimer asserted, “There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of
my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that
I lost long ago.”
This month I’m thinking of the
girl/boy inside and how to keep this energetic, spontaneous being, this
animation in the now, alive, awake, aware in our writing. As Picasso observed, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist
once we grow up.”
There is a story where a little girl
asks her father “Is it true that when we are asleep, we can wake?” “Of course
it’s true, my child” “Then it must also be true that when we are awake, we can
wake up more.” The Buddha, when asked about his name, responded “It means I am
awake. “
Virginia Wolf most admired writers who
saw through the eyes of a child. Children are naturals at word play and
metaphor. My first born, Damian, at 5, spoke of “the headmonster who carried a
grief case.” My last born, Adam, at 5 gazed into a glass of coke and whispered,
”This is night and the bubbles are stars.” (intuiting his calling? – he’s
studying astro-physics.) Writing
teacher, Peter Elbow, reminds us, “Children have more real voice. They talk
poetically more easily.... Children have the gift of whole- heartedness,
complete intentionality.”
Rumi, the mystic, asks:
Has anyone seen the boy who used to
come here?
Round-faced troublemaker, quick to find a joke, slow to be serious.
...polished and ready for his talent.
You know that one.
Have you heard stories about him?
Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian world
collapsed for such a Joseph.
I'd gladly spend years getting word
of him, even third or fourth hand.
Finding a photo of yourself as a child
might help to evoke all that enthusiasm and tactile presence so you can arrive
in your text. Has anyone seen the boy below? (long time since he wore a tie.)
Dorian’s Sept
Storyshops/ Writeshops/Conversations
[If you want
any of these in your area speak speak.
1.
Once Upon a Life: Re-storying our Life and Work R40 (R20 pensioners)
Wed 2 Sept 20.00 an
I have told so
many stories that I have become fiction
(Rumi)
In this interactive
conversation we enter the world of story to rediscover our creativity, zest,
energy and passion. We search for a myth to sustain and transform us as
we ask, the question, “Where is the life we have lost in living?” (T S Eliot).
We consider how attention to life stories and fiction, so rich in image, symbol
and rhythm, can open us to the sense of our own fictionality and create a more
abundant life.
Venue: The Pavilion, Grove Primary, Grove Av
(entrance
Contact: Gabby 083 3593270, or Di
083 6277417
2.
Living the
Questions Now: An Evening of Story-telling and Poetry R90*
Sat 12 Sept
18.00 – 20.30
Live the
questions now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live along
some distant day into the answer (Rilke,
Letters to a Young Poet)
What are the
great questions of our lives? We mediate on and consider these questions … turn
them upside out and inside down… we explore them though collage, poetry and story
telling. a soup, bread, cheese, wine and conversation
evening
The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me …
or conversely that I myself am the question (Carl Jung)
Venue: 20
Capri Street St James Contact Kiki ktheo@icon.co.za
Kiki,
congrats on your new book Money Well
3.
Jail
Break: How Stories bend the Mental Prison Bars R190
Sat 19 Sept 10.00 -13.00
In 1794 a small boy underwent surgery for a
tumour (no antibiotics or anaesthetics.).
To distract his attention he was told a tale so intriguing that he later
avowed he had felt no discomfort. The boy was Jacob Grimm.
The workshop offers a radical approach to story
telling/story listening and its possibilities for freeing us from beliefs,
limitations and paradigms that no longer serve. Stories alter our mind body
processing. They place us in the flow zone. Jung said we walk in shoes too
small. Come and try on a larger size.
venue: TBA
4.
The Joy
and Call of Stories Find the Story
teller inside
A practical 6 week Storyshop
Series to evoke Creativity and Imagination
Sat 26 Sept, 03, 10, 17, 24 and 31Oct
R900.00 (or R150 per week) EARLY
Telling stories as
a lure to the future is an ancient strategy of sages, philosophers and great
religious leaders. ( Diarmuid O'Murchu)
This workshop will show you how to ritualise and
energise your life though engaging with stories – those of your own and of
others. Climb inside stories and tell them from the inside. Listen to them,
Shape them. Taste them on your tongue. Reconnect to creativity, memory and
imagination. This workshop experience will energize you. You will get a clearer understanding of how we
construct our lives as fiction and how this can release us into a more abundant
life. You’ll emerge with stories in your heart and on your lips.
Week 1: The Why of
Stories
Week 2: Archetypal
Stories
Week 3: Sourcing Stories
through observation
Week 4: Structure your
own Stories
Week 5: Practical:
telling Stories
Week 6: The Circle and
the Fire - A celebration of Story telling
The joy and call of stories will:
·
explain the power of storytelling
·
give you an understanding of how stories work
·
give you practical tools to work with in the telling of stories
·
help you develop the ability to tell a good story
·
ignite your creativity and imagination
Facilitators
Dorian Haarhoff is a story-teller, writer, mentor and a former
Professor of Literature. He is passionate about developing innate creativity
and imagination. He believes that stories can heal, build communities and
create new worlds.
Kirsten Pearson is a Dialogue facilitator, poet and the volunteer
Project Lead for the Movement for Sharing Life Stories. She promotes
story telling as a way to support change, create new realities and transform
the potential of our future.
Who
will benefit from attending:
Writers, storytellers, readers, travellers, lovers of words,
images, silences…therapists, artists, spiritual seekers, coaches, teachers,
magicians, tricksters, ecologists...anyone who wants to raise their story
IQ.
Venue: Novalis Ubuntu Institute 39 Rosmead
Av, Wynberg (dome twixt Wetton +
instalment option available
contact Kirsten Pearson on 021 461 3145 or email: kirstenpea@gmail.com
Stories are the creative conversion of life itself
into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the
currency of human contact. — Robert McKee
5.
Writing Yourself Alive A Life Story Workshop R395
Sat 26 Sept 9.30 -
16.00
We are all
endowed as story-tellers. There is a mystic in every one of us.
Writing is about a conversation with yourself and with others. An
exchange of energies. It is a skill drawn from attention and openness – an organic process rather
than a talent. In this workshop we explore our innate creativity and
imagination and find the words to tell our
stories… to make them more alive. We travel in search of our personal
myths - the stories that energise our lives. The workshop also focuses on how to
pay attention, be present in your
writing and engage the reader as a creative partner. And source your bliss.
You will
explore how to
·
align yourself with the one
inside who knows how to write
·
start and sustain that
conversation
·
be thrilled by words
·
create a first draft
·
breathe life into the words and
let words breathe life into you
Bring writing materials, old magazines, scissors, a glue stick and a light lunch to share.
Bookings: Sumeera Dawood sumeera.d@gmail.com
Ongoing activities (some repeat info)
Development Work
I will be soon working alongside Dr
Laura Campbell of the HSRC and Robs (bereavement) NGO in Pmb facilitating a needs
analysis through stories, creative play and prompts for caregivers, nurses
mothers who care for children who are dying.
Corporate Work
Story work in
organisational development is growing. Stories shape our world of work –
leadership, training, mergers, marketing, product development, client services,
strategic planning. Stories influence
organisations (the larger body) as much as they do individuals (the smaller
body). Unconscious stories can sabotage an organisation. Stories made conscious
can save it. When employees’ stories are heard and received, they feel valued as an asset and are more
present at work. They feel a sense of belonging and begin to use their
initiative.
Speaking Engagements
Be still when
you have nothing to say but when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got
to say, and say it hot."( D. H. Lawrence) I’m building up this aspect of my work.
Anywhere:
Spring Stories at Home
This season I will be a story-ing for groups of friends…an evening,
wine, cheese, breads and tales for the telling. Any rhyme or reason –
birthdays, TV fatigue, the art of
conversation, sommer. Gather a group for Spring. This month sixtieth birthdays.
Mentoring –
one-on-one
“You make me sound like myself” (various clients.) Walk with me in words.
You put on one shoe, I wear the other. Memoirs, mindfulness adventures, work in
the word… genres tumbling out of folk on the one-on-one path. Such a richness
of story here.
5-
Email Courses: Writer’s/
Poet’s Voice Course – one-on–one tuition
Some folks respond to structure, assignments… if so, ask and it shall be
negotiated. Here is one possibility: Do you love
reading and writing? This one-on-one apprenticeship aims to take you further up
the writing mountain and offer you a deeper engagement with your craft. This
course is structured in the nature of an ongoing conversation with a few chosen
writers or poets, (ancestral or alive) with me and with yourself. I encourage
you to keep a journal to record your observations and reflections.
CD/ Books
The Halo and
the Noose, the Power of story-telling and story listening in Business Life R180
Want to source
a 100 plus stories? co-written with Graham Williams (Graysonian Press). We
run corporate story workshops based on our book. Bruce Copley leading aaha educator, sound journey man writes:
The stories are delightful. I love the skilful way in which you
explain and illustrate the relevance and connection of stories to every
sphere of our short earth walk. Congratulations for a fine and profound gift
that will I have no doubt, weave its magic. I regard as one of the most
delightful and totally captivating reads of my life. (bruce@aahalearning.com)
For orders: from the authors or Graysonian Press Inspirational books that change the world www.graysonian.com +27 11 6462956 or 0836101113
new CD out: More Stories: Stories from
Some fifty plus stories to entertain, tease,
stimulate creativity, prompt discussion… … R100 plus postage (cover is more of
an olive green than as it appears below)
Friends at Work and Play (see previous newsletters on my site)
Aneta Shaw: Creative relaxation in a small group context
Enhance personal growth and honour
your soul through creative techniques. Aneta is a clinical
psychologist and hypnotherapist, has integrated years of experience and life in
other countries with ancient ways of being in this world.
Aneta 082
686 8118 or 021 8555415 aneta.shaw@vodamail.co.za
Sonja
Wilker
Life is the
adventure. Sonja assists people to enjoy the ride, love life, and live it to
the full. “I bring to my coaching, joy, fun, practical experience, specialist
NLP, and other mind-blowing tools.” Sonja is also an artist.
http://www.coach-coaching-stars.com Tel/fax: 021
783 5303 083 44 999 88
Kiki Theo
Holistic
wealth creation courses with the author of Money Alchemy & Money
Well (Penguin) Kiki writes “ I work with
money as metaphor for transformation and use writing, drawing, claywork,
ceremony, ritual, symbol and my own energetic transmutations to facilitate a
shift in the area of wealth.”
Kiki Theo ktheo@icon.co.za www.moneyalchemy.com
Elma Pollard
The paper is spreading to the
Maggie Fikkert
Maggie, author of Jade and the
Serpent’s Circle, a teenage novel on
reverse evolution (that I mentored) has just launched a writers’ forum.
Innovative… energetic…
Maggie maggief@iziza.co.za +27 83 6 222 222 fax 086 658 3336 www.iziza.co.za
Writer-sites
and News (see site news on my web. see new web
address dorianhaarhoff.com The longer old one is linked to it.
May you hear of that girl/boy at first hand.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter.
Dr Dorian
Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com
and dorianhaarhoff.com