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Live Earth Storytellers
To become a Live Earth Storyteller you first of all need to ask yourself these questions
Do I feel that I am part of Nature, part of Life, part of the Earth? Do I feel that all beings, plants, the mineral kingdom and all of Nature are worthy of respect at all times? Do I want human society to develop in a sustainable direction and learn to live in harmony and balance with the rest of Nature?
If your answers to these three questions are ‘Yes’, then welcome to Live Earth you are a natural part of it. In reality, of course, everyone is a part of it whether they are aware of it or not but by answering those questions you bring this up to awareness and this is most valuable. The reason that doing this is significant is that we live in a society whose underlying answers to those questions are in practice ‘No’. So by answering those questions you create what we call the Live Earth grounds to step onto and out of the old social patterning of separation.
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If you would like to become a Live Earth Storyteller then email us on stories@liveearthstory.co.uk and say hello. You will then be welcomed into the online community of Live Earth Storytellers and have access to the other members and resources as they become available.
As a Live Earth Storyteller you are welcome to input into the Universe Story, the Earth Story and the Human Story. This can be with your own material or it can use donated facts and information that have been sent in that you then write up into story form.
You are also welcome to start your own Live Earth Story and to grow that over time as well as to contribute to and collaborate with other stories.
We find that what is really useful is telling, sharing and improvising storylines with your friends and family. It is amazing what comes out and is a rich resource for you to explore and use. As well as this it is of course hugely enjoyable for all concerned.
To help this process here are a couple of suggestions for ways of going about it that you might find helpful. You can use these to either look at the big global picture or the small local picture, both are good fun.
The Great Turning
This is a Deep Ecology exercise created by Joanna Macey and works well with any group of people. What i do is to ask my friends to imagine that we are all people living a hundred years from now in the future. In this Future we find that humankind has changed its ways and is living in harmony with Nature in a state of balance and respect for its fellow species and that world has regenerated itself.
Obviously we are not heading in this direction at the moment so the question is what was it that happened that made us change our ways and how did this occur.
From our vantage point a hundred years hence we then look back retrospectively and comment on what happened. To do this we create and imagine events and discoveries that occurred that caused the Great Turning.
What I find is that if I make a start and say a few things then the others catch on and soon start joining in.
For example i might talk about how we started to run out of oil and petrol and had to come up with new ways and solutions. Or i could talk about new social movements that arose. I could also bring in inventions that changed the way we did things. These can be complete fantasy whose sole purpose might be to entertain or to build a bridge or they can be based in working ideas or realities. It doesn’t really matter, it is just good fun and really stimulating having a go.
I find, time and again that once you get things going it’s as if a current starts to flow through people and doors open up. Inside us all are the inner knowings and answers to the future and it is just wonderful to discover this. I find that lots of people have got all sorts of details worked out that would not come out if the chance was not created. Time and again I have experienced how people’s ideas and pictures interlock and fit together. The other thing that happens is when you hear someone suggest something that you had thought of yourself and thought that only you knew! This helps to remind us that ideas and inspiration come through us and are not personal possessions but a shared thing.
The Local Story
I find that the Great Turning works well for the bigger picture and can also be applied to the local area. However what also works well for the Local Story is to start as a fantasy story with characters and tell of how the local area pulled itself together and changed and regenerated its culture and became sustainable. This has another dynamic altogether. The Great Turning is from the Future looking back to this Present Moment and the Local Story from the Present Moment moving forwards into the Future.
Have a go with both and see how you get on. What I find quite often works well is to have a go at the big picture with the Great Turning and this really gets people going and stretches them and their imagination and stirs things up and then after a while move into the Local Story. This feels really good as it is a return to the familiar so people feel at home. Having sketched in some details on the big picture you will have made some kind of framework for your Local Story to fit into and feel comfortable. People really get stuck into the Local Story and the detail that comes out is amazing. If you can, jot down the points that arise or ask someone to be a recorder. Its valuable material!!
What happens between a group of people who repeat these exercises, is that the stories become a group possession. They get remembered and added to as time goes by and grow in detail and beauty. This is an increasingly encouraging thing for new people, as it makes it easier to join into something that is underway.
You can do these exercises in lots of social situations. For example, after dinner with friends and family, with groups of children, around the fire at gatherings or maybe make small storytelling events in your home or locality. If you get a local group going you can meet in each other’s homes.
Our imaginations are a rich resource and these ways invite them out into the open and make them welcome and give them space to express themselves.
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