OMYGOD – Press Conference



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday May 17th 2021

CONTACT:

Media Relations: Zoe Gray social@powherhouse.com

Impact Producer: Charlene SanJenko charlene@powherhouse.com

Artist: Tina Overbury tina@tinaolife.com


STORYTELLING FOR RECONCILIATION

AN IRELAND & CANADA STORY

Press Conference & Digital Premiere of OMYGOD by TinaO


Storytelling for Reconciliation

May 17th 2021 – Vancouver, BC Canada – PowHERhouse Impact Media Group with TinaOLife announces the three country press conference and the global digital premiere of OMYGOD, a Storytelling for Reconciliation experience about the women we’ve burned, the babies we’ve buried and the Gods we have worshipped. 

There are Some Stories only Art Can Hold

On May 28th 2021, the digital press conference and screening of OMYGOD will connect audiences of Ireland, Canada and the United States to introduce the social impact project Storytelling for Reconciliation, and meet the writer/storyteller TinaO alongside the core creative team behind OMYGOD.


OMYGOD Press Conference

Friday May 28th at 10am (PDT)
 

OMYGOD Screening

Ireland 7:30pm BST / 11:30am PDT
New York / Toronto 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT 
Vancouver / Los Angeles 6:30pm PDT 


What is OMYGOD?

It’s not a feminist show or a witch burning show, and it is not a “dead-babies” show. It is a weaving of complexity and historical scar tissues that exists not to entertain, but to invite transformation. It is a production offered in a spirit of restorative justice, reconciliation and as a bridge of humility between cultures. 

In Canada we have a Highway of Tears.
In Ireland, they have an Irish Triangle.

In our current time, the narrative of OMYGOD follows a little girl named Cristiona who loses her mother, and her 50 year old self says yes to a call to Ireland as she wrestles with her own story of God, faith, Indigeneity, and grief. 

The Tuam Babies and the Death of 9000 Irish Babies

In Tuam, County Galway Ireland, the remains of 796 unnamed babies were found buried in an abandoned septic tank outside of the Bon Secour Catholic Mother and Baby home. Such homes existed across Ireland, and more than 56,000 children from a ‘fallen’ mother were born there. The anonymous testimony from residents compares the homes to prisons, and recalls that the nuns verbally abused the children, often calling them the “spawn of satan” or “devil’s spawn”.  Some were adopted out of the homes illegally to the United States and across Ireland, others spent their whole childhoods in such home. Across Ireland, some 9000 of these children died in Mother and Baby County Homes, each erased from their mother’s care and for many, from their actual existence.

Canada’s Indigenous Genocide and the loss of 6000 Children

Before we can have reconciliation we must have truth. Starting in 1831, the colonial governments in what we now call Canada removed Indigenous children from their families and forced them into residential schools with the explicit goal of cultural genocide. Priests, nuns and clergymen belonging to Christian Churches operated these homes and effectively carried out the task of “civilizing” more than 150,000 children, thousands of whom lost their lives in the schools, thousand more of whom suffered through abuse of all kinds and subsequent trauma.

The Murder of Women

In 1487 The Malleus Maleficarum, or, the “Hammer of the Witches,” was written by Catholic Clergyman, Heinrich Kramer. This manual detailed the how-to of naming, torturing and burning a witch, and it became a founding trauma tool in the Christianization of Pagan and Celtic Ireland.

Seven generations of children watched their mothers emerge from cages and prison cells after being crushed and tortured, becoming screaming witches before their eyes.

Witch burning continues. In 2010 Ama Hemmah, a 72 year old grandmother was burned alive in Ghana after being named a witch. 



OMYGOD is a Storytelling for Reconciliation experience. It is a poetic, often humorous and harrowing journey across time, cultures, and faiths to invite each of us to walk a full story all the way through the trauma to acceptance, to grief and ultimately to a place of rest beyond blame. As a storyteller, this is TinaO’s offering to reconciliation: even if we weren’t there, we can still say we’re sorry and mean it.

Before we can have Reconciliation we must have Truth.

OMYGOD is Executive Produced by Impact Media Producer Charlene SanJenko. PowHERhouse Impact Media Group is a 100% Indigenous owned organization who champions social impact projects that change the narrative for H.E.R. – Human Expansion Realized. 


OMYGOD – KEY CREATIVE TEAM 

Writer/Storyteller/Performer – Tina Overbury

Dramaturg – Nicolle Nattrass

Creative Consultant – Dean Paul Gibson 

Digital Director – James Gardiner

Director of Photography – Randal Hrytzak Bemoved Media

Sound Designer – Paul Tedeschini

Editor – Jay Lehmann 


OMYGOD, a Storytelling for Reconciliation piece about the women we burned, the babies we buried and the Gods we have worshipped, premieres on Friday May 28th with a Digital Press Conference at 10am PDT, followed by three individual screenings: Ireland/UK screening 7:30pm BST; New York/Toronto 6pm EDT; and Vancouver/Los Angeles 6:30pm PDT. 



To book your seat and receive a full agenda and press kit, click the red button above, or rsvp here.

To connect with Impact Producer Charlene SanJenko, please respond to: Charlene@Powherhouse.com

To connect with TinaO or the creative team please respond to Tina@TinaOLife.com


CONTACT:

Media Relations: Zoe Gray social@powherhouse.com

Impact Producer: Charlene SanJenko charlene@powherhouse.com

Artist: Tina Overbury tina@tinaolife.com

OMYGOD – THREE COUNTRY PREMIERE

May 28th 2021

OMYGOD – A solo-show by TinaO

Premieres in Three Countries

IRELAND / UK

7:30pm BST / 11:30am PDT

NEW YORK / TORONTO

6pm EDT / 3:00 PDT 

VANCOUVER / LOS ANGELES

6:30pm PDT

On May 28th 2021, you are invited to Christina’s 50th Birthday un-party in Tuam, County Galway Ireland where an 8 yr old girl who thinks she’s a witch meets Jesus, a woman who knows how to boil an egg, lights three fires of reconciliation, and the special guest at the party is The Morrigan, a shape-shifting Irish deity of prophecy, battle and sovereignty.

OMYGOD is a mythical tale about the women we burned, the children we buried, the Gods we worship and the fires we light after seven generations of children witness their mother turn into witches before their very eyes.

In this special place of Inglenook… 

Writer/Performer, Tina Overbury catches us off guard with her humorous, poetic and harrowing tales of life as a woman who loves the sacred, but offers: “I love God, but does he have to be a man?” She reminds us about the power of books by showing us the Malleus Maleficarum, the ‘Witch Burning for Dummies’ instruction manual which shaped us for 300 years. She asks us to come and sit by the fire with all aspects of what it means to be a woman. She offers, we are The Morrigan, The Three Mary’s of the Gospel, and the infamous Lady M herself. We have a conversation with Jesus, and we’re introduced to Mouse Woman, the North American Indigenous mother of Raven.

As guests at her un-party, audiences will witness the makings of a mad woman and say we’re sorry as we sweep up the ashes of those we have burned in the name of being holy. 

OMYGOD is a mythical and redemptive tale across time, culture, and faith that is as funny as it is brave. As world patriarchal structures crumble, we are not left with void of wisdom, we need only look to the cultural stories that exist within to remember that God belongs to everyone, and power within gender is not hierarchical, or a conversation about sex, witchcraft or worthiness. 


This is STORYTELLING for RECONCILIATION

Before there can be reconciliation, there must be truth.
And there are some truths that only art can hold.



Storytelling is a way we can honour the scars left behind from unspeakable atrocities.
It’s a way through the bruising to remember, witness and move toward reconciliation through a restorative process of embodied listening.

Theatre can do that.

OMYGOD is the first storytelling experience offered by TinaO. Semi-autobiographical and inspired by real-life events and historical references, this storytelling experience is offered in the spirit of reconciliation and restorative justice, and as a bridge of humility between cultures. It is a feminist narrative combining humour, storytelling and poetry which brings together two Indigenous cultures rich in oral history and a shared scar of cultural and human genocide.

From the residential schools of Turtle Island (North America) to the Mother and Baby homes of Eire (Ireland), from the triple essence goddess of The Morrigan to the three Mary’s of the gospel, from witch burning to the everyday making of a madwoman – OMYGOD offers historical explanations as to why we are the way we are, and asks us: 

‘Who do we become when seven generations of children watch their mothers burn?’


This story is personal, hopeful, humorous, and deeply tender.
We are human.
Storytelling reminds us of this.

WRITER / PERFORMER – TINA OVERBURY

DIGITAL DIRECTOR – JAMES GARDINER

CREATIVE CONSULTANT & LIVE THEATRE DIRECTOR (for winter 2021 performances) – DEAN PAUL GIBSON

DRAMATURG – NICOLLE NATTRASS

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – RANDAL HRYTZAK – Bemoved Media

EDITOR – JAY LEHMANN

SOUND DESIGN – PAUL TEDESCHINI


Tina Overbury is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is devoted to global reconciliation through the exploration of origin stories, sharing our oral history, land-based knowing, and a continued focus on communication as a sacred practice. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Stories from the Core – her weekly writing and conversation series. She is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media as a core-communications specialist working with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a co-host of GATHER for HER, and a PowHERhouse Artist of Impact Amplify Coach helping leaders become artists and artists become leaders.

VOICES FROM THE STONES – 50 Nights with TinaO

There are Stories from which we come.

We are not of this time.

We are of all time.

We can feel our revolution story,

We remember our creation story.

We live in this body story.

We are Story Stones.

We are Stardust

We are a Story from the Core

Welcome to Voices from the Stones – 50 Nights with TinaO leading up to the launch of

STORY STONES – The Book

& O MY GOD – The Show

& Celebrating my 50th Birthday

On December 25th, Christmas Day and day one of my 50th year, I will begin fifty nights of poetry, soliloquies, creation stories, musings and more… sharing excerpts from my upcoming solo-show O MY GOD, and reading short bits from the second draft of my book: Story Stones.
I will send excerpts to you via email to enjoy over these long & chilly winter nights when you subscribe here.

The Set Up:
It’s her birthday and you’re invited to help blow out the candles.
At the party you’ll meet a young girl haunted by a 15,000 year old giant, a painfully self-conscious witch lost at the altar, and a Celtic shape-shifting mistress of war sharing the burn of what it means to fiercely love and protect.
Some uninvited mythological guests drop in to offer jokes, warnings and insights about the sacred irrelevance of the divisive words and worlds we lovingly, and whole-heartedly refer to as God.
This isn’t a book about rocks, though my house is filled with them. 
It’s not about divorce either, but like the big jagged stone it is, it’s in here.
I didn’t want to write a cancer comeback story either, but… it happened.
And it’s not about God.
Who am I kidding?
It’s always about God.

Voices from the Stones

50 Nights with TinaO

WHAT: 50 Nights of Poetry, Soliloquies, Readings, and Musings. I will be reading you excerpts from my upcoming book: Story Stones, and sharing with you some of the behind the scenes moments and inspirations from my solo-show in development: O MY God. Come, listen with me over these long winter nights. Let’s fall into the story together.
WHEN: Beginning December 25th, 2020
WHERE: Sent directly to your email.
HOW: Subscribe here.
WHY: Pure listening enjoyment, plus receive first access to pre-order TinaO’s book: STORY STONES, and reserve your limited seating (and socially distant) tickets to her Spring tour of O MY GOD (March – June 2021)
Join me…
Let’s listen together. 
xxT

Start Here… 

Tina Overbury is a core-communications specialist who works with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Story Stones, TinaO’s online gathering of listening in to sacred stories. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse media where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.

An Angel in my Car

Listen to TinaO read About it here.

About it

I’m struggling with it

It’s not new

but it 

looks 

so damn easy,

also not new

I hear

it 

can be,

easy

I keep hearing it

I should know it

by now 

Like really know how 

by now

Like if I don’t know,

it 

by now,

then there’s got to be something wrong with me

because I’ve watched every damn video there is

about 

it

and I still can’t seem to get 

it

So I read the books 

you recommend 

about it

Listen to the words

you tell me

And keep telling me

And telling me

And telling me

And telling me

About 

it

And I ask for more

Because I want 

it

And it 

looks so easy

it seems

So easy

But it’s

not 

for me.


I ask

What else don’t I know about

it?

You know I even had someone create a meditation for me 

About it.

I slept with 

it,

the meditation

and I dreamt about 

it

Woke up with it

Spoke with it

Joked with it

Croaked with it

I didn’t toke with it

I don’t 

smoke 

it

I think I’ve had it

Because your encouragement is 

starting to feel 

like nagging

The truth is

I suck 

at it

being supported

and ocean swimming

has been my greatest teacher

Where We’ve Been – Circa 2017

Pre-Triathlon Iron Man 5150

I was four months out of cancer treatment when I started training for the Iron Man 5150 (Olympic distance triathlon). I could barely swim ten strokes without losing my breath.

I had suffered a shoulder injury after a full on knock down drag ’em out with young son and couldn’t rotate my shoulder.

But I was committed to the race. I trained with a kickboard up to ten days before the swim. After being told I would be disqualified if I brought my trusty board, I panicked. This video is less than seven days before the swim.

So an Angel took a seat in my truck today. Just in time.

This year on December 25th, which is both Christmas Day and my 50th Birthday, I am stepping into a new story…

and I know what I know what I know about how stories work:

Stories won’t let go until they’ve been fully heard.

This is release #6 of sixteen Story Hits (vlogs) from as far back as 2013. Some are my favourites, some are yours. If you missed week #1 or more and want to start from the beginning, you can start here with: Out of the Water

I will be writing more about these moments in both my upcoming book: STORY STONES (coming fall 2021, and in my one woman show: O MY GOD (touring spring 2021).

I have to close one story to open another. 

Thank you for listening.

xT

Tina Overbury is a core-communications specialist who works with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Story Stones, TinaO’s online gathering of listening in to sacred stories. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse media where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.

If you’d like to know more about TinaO’s approach to STORY and receive updates about STORY STONES the book, and O MY GOD, her one woman show, click here and you’ll be added to her ‘stay in touch’ list plus she’ll send you a few short intro videos about what story means to her. 

CLICK HERE for TinaO Story stuff.

Out of the Water – TinaO’s Story Hits #1

FINISH LINES

Listen to TinaO read this poem here.

a nervous system,

that’s what we are

electricity and thought mashed up

on sound

words on guts

fear on finish lines

how we love a good finish line story

but we are far

far

far

from ever being finished

stop pushing

I heard,

but I don’t know how to swim

stop

pushing

I…

but I will be sucked down by the reeds if…

stop

pushing

(hold breath)

but this is how I…

stop

a list of finishes

fishes

still swimming

stop

the,

now go.

Listen to the poem read by TinaO here. 

Out of the Water – Story Hit #1

pre-triathlon – post cancer – July 2016

These vlogs bring you back with me to where we’ve been together over the last seven years. I share them to close one story so as to open another.

This year on December 25th, which is both Christmas Day and my 50th Birthday, I am stepping into a new story…and I know what I know what I know about how stories work:

Stories won’t let go until they’ve been fully heard.

For the next sixteen weeks I am releasing a Story Hit (vlog) from our last five years together. Some will be my favourites, some yours.

This is release #1 – Out of the Water, and if you’d like to carry on to release #2 – Beauty School Drop Out – click here. 

I will be writing more about these moments in both my upcoming book: STORY STONES (coming fall 2021, and in my one woman show: O MY GOD (touring spring 2021).

On my 50th Birthday, if you’re on my VIP list, I’ll be sending you 50 Days of Christmas Story Gifts from Dec. 25th to February 12th. If you want some story goodness filled with sneak peeks into the creation and rehearsal process, plus be able to pre-order the book, and order tickets to the show, click here and the let the gifting begin! (You’ll get a bunch of cool story right away)

I have to close one story to open another. 

Thank you for listening.

xT

Tina Overbury is a core-communications specialist who works with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Story Stones, TinaO’s online gathering of listening in to sacred stories. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse media where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.

If you’d like to know more about TinaO’s approach to STORY and receive updates about STORY STONES the book, and O MY GOD, her one woman show, click here and you’ll be added to her ‘stay in touch’ list plus she’ll send you a few short intro videos about what story means to her. 

CLICK HERE for TinaO Story stuff.

Ruby Glasses

I am working on a one woman show called O MY GOD for my 50th birthday, and so much more. I’ve been wading through moving images from my childhood for days and this one keeps comes back to me over and over. As I pulled it up I realized I don’t remember moving. At all. But I do remember wrapping the ruby glasses my mom used to collect carefully in newsprint and placing them in boxes.

Ruby Glasses 

It’s cinema to me

dust on light becomes mist,

dissolve


evening sundown

to dusk

to twilight,

lighting


my knees on the linoleum

a tint of pale not yellow

but not green

and cool

with grooves that form map lines on my skin

from sitting for so long


It’s okay

I’ll trace them later

under a summer sheet

her picture tucked under my pillow

and a faded window curtain

breathing sleep over me,

set deck


We are moving

and I’m wrapping ruby glasses

with my dad,


I

am

quiet

I am never quiet

I am a tiger

a magician

a trapeze artist

a clown in long blue chiffon

trailing the ocean at my feet

I burble

I giggle

I wonder

out loud

always out loud


I am the maestro of this

this

circus of music

of black cherries and red poppies,

of blue bells

of white sheet wonder

and of mystery,

sound design


I tilt here,

so full

my throat

and the sky I see through my window

has wrapped me

and my shoulders

in a shawl to forget

all the things I will miss

when we leave this place


it slips

and I shiver

the depression glass, the broken porch, the pears

the plums and the cherries

the blossoms

so messy

so pink

and always in my hair,


the sound of my feet

running

tripping

twisting my ankle

falling down the stairs

again


dipping my fingers into the chocolate paint

that smothered

everything in the 70s,

editing


everything you built with your hands

for her

will be gone

like her

from both of us


I won’t remember my last sleep in this house

I won’t even think of it until

now

like cinema


but I will remember

wrapping

ruby

glasses

at seven years old

my hands, your hands, her glasses

in newsprint

like moving pictures

This poem was originally published on Medium.

TinaO is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media Group where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.

As part of TinaO’s audience, CLICK HERE to receive a personal message from TinaO about the power, beauty and invitation of Story, and your personal Story from the Core. You will also be able to stay up to date about TinaO’s performances, storytelling events, and upcoming retreats and workshops.

VIDEO – Story Stones 2 – Promise


TRANSCRIPTION of Story Stones 2 –  PROMISE

I’m TinaO from TinaOLife and this is Story Stones, an hour of deep listening and learning together. 

I am a storyteller, a listener, and a holder of spaces where we can connect with the Story of Us. 

My work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the Christian Tradition. 

Myth and story as the guide.

Mysticism as the path.

And the Christian Tradition as the living footsteps.   

I’m an artist, a writer, a mom, a runner, and a poet. My faith is in the space between us, where two or more are gathered, my trust is in the Mystery and my practice is listening and communicating from there. 

That’s me. 

Okay… so what happens in this hour?

Every week we listen in to a word, and it is a listening. It’s not a telling. I’m not here to tell you anything. That’s not my job. The word becomes the invitation and the gateway which you can open with your softening, to hear in the way in which you hear, and be nourished, in the way you are nourished by your connection, and it’s the connection which is the practice we are building together. 

And it’s your connection to an understanding of what you may call God, or the divine, or consciousness, or the universe, or the cosmos… I suggest the ‘name’ isn’t important, and the connection is. The name: God can be gateway IN for some, as an understanding of love and safety and home, and for others, a gateway OUT because alot of pain and suffering has happened in the name of God, and I don’t want to pretend that isn’t true. 

And I invite you to remember that the name of God isn’t the same as an experience of God which is the divine Mystery. An experience with that mystery is the connection point where we feel met.

In this space I try to be inclusive by using language that is as broad as possible because I’m not attached to a name, I am anchoring this hour together to an experience of a God-connection. That is the pointy end of my ‘ship’ as it cuts us through the water.

And I invite you to use your ‘word’ for God, or to try on this acronym of GOD as the Good Ole I Dunno, or The Mystery if it feels safer for you,  because faith doesn’t happen in what we know, it happens in what we don’t know and yet can feel rested within.     

This is a weekly practice of our connection through the gateway of a word, or a story stone I choose through the readings of my week. That is all we do here. 

This week the story stone is promise. 

There is music: 

This week it’s a piece by Antoine Bradford called promises, and a classic  by John Denver. I have a story stones playlist on Spotify so you can find it later too. 

There is a kid’s conversation and reading:

This week we’re taking a peek at an Inuktitut story, originally held in an oral history, or library, and now in a kid’s book by Michael Arvarrluk Kusugak and Robert Munsch called A Promise is a Promise. 

There is a bible reading:

This week we’re listening into Matthew 5 – from The Message, pieces from the Sermon on the Mount. 

There is a Buddhist perspective from Pema Chodron’s book: The Wisdom of No Escape. 

And a beautiful poem by Sara Teasdale called: Since There is No Escape

All of this is crafted as an invitation and exploration of the word: promise. 

So… shall we begin. 

SOUP

Get comfortable, grab a glass of water or tea, or a bowl of soup, this soup happens to be: a blend of red pepper and tomato soup  by Pacific Foods, to which I’ve added some spinach, some cumin and for the non-veggies out there, some sausage. Yummmm yummmm yummmm….  

Let’s settle in.


I light this candle to remind us that no matter where we are, or what the story is inside our heads, or the story we are currently living, we are never alone. The mystery of our being and how we are held in this space and time, is always with us. We are loved.


INVITATION TO LISTEN:

Let the story of your morning go. It is not of this moment. Let the story of what you think this is going to be go… it is not of this moment. And let yourself be. Listen beyond the words in your head. Open up to listening to the space itself. 

MUSIC

I invite you to listen to the words of Antoine Bradford: Promises on Spotify.

The story stone we are listening into today is the word: Promise.

What is a promise?  Why do we promise things? What is the heaviness and the weightlessness of that word? What are we invited to experience within a promise?

Let’s start with something a little interesting: something kids might understand: 


FOR THE KIDS

This comes from Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak with Robert Munsch 

Kusugak is a celebrated storyteller and author who grew up in Repulse Bay, NWT which is now known as Nunavut. He grew up living a traditional Inuit lifestyle and is the author of twelve children’s books. 

This book A Promise is a Promise  is kind of a scary book, to me. It’s the story of a little girl who is warned not to go fishing between the cracks in the ice in the ocean because a creature Qallupilluit lives under the ice.

Do you think that’s true? 

So why would that story be told?  Let’s read a little?

You can listen to the whole recording of  A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak from a readers theatre performance of the story here:

This is one form of a promise. If you do this…  I promise you this could happen… It’s a warning. Where does it come from? 

My favourite scene in this story is the part where Allashua is tucked in bed with her parents and getting warmed up after falling in the ice and she says… I went to the cracks in  the sea ice and her dad says: Ah, ah, not so smart. I called the Qallupilluit nasty names… and her dad says: “ah, ah, not so smart at all…’ 

There she is with frozen lips, crying and feeling pretty bad because a promise is a promise and she broke her promise: she did go to the ice on the ocean. She even challenged the promise her parents warned her about, called it names, and basically dared it to come out… doubting her parents. There she is, probably feeling really awful about what she’s done, and what do her parents do?

Take her to bed, make her some tea, hold her and say ‘ah, ah… yes,  that wasn’t so smart was it?’. As you read on in the book, they don’t lecture her. They don’t blame her. They don’t cast her away or make her feel really  bad – No… they help her, and there’s this great scene where the mom and the dad dance for Qualliliput, even invite them into their house and feed them… 

Now it’s a myth, and as in all myths, there’s always all sides of a story. The ‘darker’ sides the ‘lighter’ sides, and everything in between, and this is a story just like that. 

Life is never as simple as a one-sided promise.

This Inuit story of Qallupilluit is two-sided. It teaches us about the promise of being loved unconditionally, and the promise that there is danger out there. As the book says on the last page:

A Qallupilluq is an imaginary Inuit creature, somewhat like a troll, that lives in Hudson Bay.  It wears a woman’s parka made of loon feathers and reportedly grabs children when they come too near cracks in the ice. 

The  Inuit traditionally spend a lot of time on the sea ice, so the Qallupilluit were clearly invented as a means to help keep small children away from dangerous crevices.  

What promises make you feel like Allalusha or like her parents all tucked up in bed, safe and warm and protected together?



Here’s the thing about listening to a reading, or a story:  in the words of mythologist Dr. Martin Shaw, who says: you can’t trap a story, you can only track the. I invite you to listen… to let the words of each reading wash over you and let what is speaking to you speak… no more, no less.

READING

Empty Promises

Matthew 5 33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong”

Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5 43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”


Pema Chodra’s: The Wisdom of No Escape
This next reading comes from Buddhist teacher, author, nun and mother, Pema Chodron, an American born Tibetan Buddhist and ordained nun who has written several dozen books and is a  teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. This excerpt comes from her very first book: The Wisdom of No Escape.

“There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.”

SERMON

Creator…. God…. Universe… Mystery… As I move forward into the story of  PROMISE today, I thank you for complexity, for individuality, for the promise of acceptance, for the one-ness of us, and the place where we can all meet. 

I acknowledge the story of us that was here before we got here and the story that of us that will be here long after we’re gone.  May the words of my mouth hold your mystery well and be in service to the unfolding of the story of you in us. 

The reading from Matthew comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Even if you’ve never read the bible,  you’ve heard about the sermon on the mount. Okay… so it’s probably a pretty big deal? 

Why?

Within the Sermon on the Mount, at the very beginning we hear the Beautitudes. Ahhh I just love that word: Beautitudes. Lots of oooooh sounds in it. And sounds matter. Just as the Om sound is considered one of the oldest vocal sounds in existence and is considered to be the original, primordial sound, or a mantra of creation. In some sacred circles, the oooh or HU sound said to lead one to transcendence—to God realization and enlightenment.

Last week we listened into the words bless or blessed and blessing which came from the beautitudes. This week we go further into the Sermon on the Mount to listen as Jesus completely changes the rules of morality as they were once known. 

He takes on the commandments and humanizes them. He digs under the narratives we have put on top of them, and instead says: listen ‘When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.’, he says: ‘You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.’  And then he says, after challenging us to love our enemies, and reminding us that God (creator, source, universe) gives the sun to warm and the rain to nourish everyone, regardless: if good/bad, nice/nasy; to Grow up. Jesus says: You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. 

He takes the promise of fear which happens when we’re commanded to do something, because what usually happens after a commandment… The Or Else statement. 

Do this or else…

Going back to Allashua in A Promise is A Promise “Don’t fish through the cracks in the  ocean… or else Qallupilluit will get you”. 

Jesus takes away the fear from the commandments and instead simply says: Grow Up. You are kingdom subjects. You do not  need fear or consequences to motivate you, simply live as the God-created identity you are.

The sermon on the mount challenges the usual ‘or else’ promise and offers us a new one: ‘you are loved’, just like Allashua’s parents when they’re all tucked in bed together. 

The hardest line for me in this Matthew reading is: When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

How many times have you had the experience of having your ‘words twisted around’, or maybe even had your ‘words used against you’, or worse had an experience where you sat in silence where only ‘part of the story’ was being told. 

Yuck right?

Okay, so I get it.  

And there are times when this happens by mistake, where the person recounting the story simply misunderstood the situation, or had their own version of events which was true for them, just not true for you. That’s the easy peasy application of this piece of scripture, especially where Jesus tells us to ‘love our enemies’. Well that’s easy if we just assume they were having a different experience, and so we’ll just give them some grace and  be done with it. But that’s not what I hear in this scripture. I hear the last line: GROW UP. Live the way God lives towards you. 

Live the way nature lives towards you.

All of these examples feel like and ick. 

So let’s take the hierarchical structure out of the God statement and see what happens.  

Live the way consciousness lives towards you.

Live the way love lives towards you. 

Does nature manipulate?

Does consciousness manipulate? 

Does the energetic frequency of love manipulate?

No.

We do. 

Because we get freaked out. We get hurt. We get angry. We get protective. We get defensive. We get offensive. We get tactical. We go unconscious with our pain and we manipulate. 

There is no faith in manipulation. 

There is no faith in control.

The only true control is faith.

For some of us it’s what we talked about last week when I offered: laying it down. For others it looks like co-creation, and group vs. individual connection or consciousness, still others, faith is a complete surrender or submission.  

None of these are wrong, or more right than the others, because  the one thing they all have in common is acting on the promise of the action of faith.

And yet most of us are Allashua, standing on the shore, ‘testing the waters’. She throws insults out to the mystical Qallupilluit to see if it comes, and when it doesn’t, she thinks, ahhhh… see…my parents’ promise was wrong. 

Their ‘or else’ was wrong. 

And don’t we do that all the time?  Oh we human beings. We are wired for short cuts aren’t we? 

Maybe I don’t have to get 8 hours of sleep.

Maybe they’re wrong and I can eat that processed… whatever.

We even head out there sometimes and search for new promises so that we can have what we want. 

You know, like those stories of “My aunt Vera lived to be 102  and she smoked and drank for her whole life…” 

We start living by the promises we acquire so we can have what we want. 

Those kinds of promises usually sound like: ‘yeah… but that doesn’t apply to me because…’

It’s a slippery slope. 

In Matthew, we are challenged, we are called, we are seen and told to grow up. Oh mannnn easier said than done.

The only promise I know for sure for sure, so it’s truly a promise I can count on is:

  1.  We are born – LIFE
  2.  We die – DEATH

So this third promise in this promise triangle that we keep hearing about, and yet testing consistently is the promise of LOVE. 

That’s the third side of the promise triangle.

The promise that we are loved.

The promise of who we feel when we live from love.  

The promise of the abundance of love. 

And yet… you can’t prove it.  

You can’t measure it. 

You can’t count on it happening. 

Unless you remember it, and build a life practice around it. 

And for this, I bring us back to Pema Chodra’s offering of: What if there is no escape? What if the only thing we know is that we live and we die. What then? 

Her story talks about the tigers above and the tigers below, and clinging to a vine which a mouse is gnawing at. She is going down. And yet she looks over and sees a beautiful bunch of strawberries. Then just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. She suggests: this might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life. 

There IS no escape. 

When we grab the strawberries, not as a way to hide from the tigers, or bargain with them, or control them, or pretend they aren’t there, but simply to enjoy a strawberry… that is also as true as the tigers – we are in the moment, and in that moment, we are the parents cuddled up around Allashua saying: “yes… I see the tigers, and yes, I am here with you”. 

There is no escape. 

There is DEATH.

There is LIFE.

And there is LOVE. 

I recently had a pretty nasty experience where I felt very insignificant, crushed even. 

There were tigers above and tigers below and the only way I could find the strawberries was the whisper to myself: 

I love you

I love you

I love you

I love you

And this is the practice I offer you.

Simply find a place in your day that is super insignificant, and something you do all the time, like pee… yep… pee… why? Because you do it at least 3x a day, and probably 6-8x per day. 

Here’s the radical invitation:

Every time you pee, as you’re washing your hand, I want you to look in the mirror and say to yourself: I love you, I love you, I love you.

That’s it. 

And I know it sounds weird… but that moment I had a few weeks ago where I literally felt like I was nothing… I went to the bathroom, and without even thinking about it, I said to myself: I love you, I love you, I love you. And in that moment, I came back into my body, and I found the strength I needed to take the next step.

There are three parts to the promise triangle.

I promise you are alive. 

I promise you will die. 

I promise you can love you.

I want to promise that you are loved by the mystery, by God, by the Good Ole I Dunno… and I will, but in the moments where you are drifting, one of the ways you can come back is by reminding yourself of the love you have within you. 

And you do. 

From there, the Good Ole I Dunno connection happens. 

You stay soft.

Your heart is soft.

Your thoughts are soft. 

You are the child in the adult in the wisdom.

You are growing up.

So let’s talk about the third point of the Promise Triangle, and for that, let’s listen to Sara Teasdale: an American lyric poet with a confessional style of writing. She died in 1933 and most of her work deals with love and death and the spiritual beauty of the natural world. 

This is Sara Teasdale’s poem: Since there is no Escape

Since there is no escape, since at the end

My body will be utterly destroyed,

This hand I love as I have loved a friend,

This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed;

Since there is no escape even for me

Who love life with a love too sharp to bear:

The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea

And hours alone too still and sure for prayer—

Since darkness waits for me, then all the more

Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore

In pride, and let me sing with my last breath;

In these few hours of light I lift my head;

Life is my lover—I shall leave the dead

If there is any way to baffle death.


What do you hear?

“Life is my lover… there is no way to baffle death”

And there isn’t. 

We are promised this one life, on this human plane. 

We are promised this one death, on this human plane of existence.

Is there more than what we see here?

Maybe. Probably.  

But the only promise we’ve been given is right now, in this place, by this ocean, on this earth, under this sky, with these people.

This is the only promise we’ve been given to do with how we will. 

We can be motivated by fear and the ‘or else’ statements. 

We can be motivated by love and the promise of unconditional love.

We can be motivated by no escape and the invitation of the strawberries.

What I know for sure for sure, is the promise of this one beautiful lifetime and the love we all have access to, always and forever. 

A love we can feed to ourselves:

as nourishment instead of dessert, 

as gentleness instead of armour,

as faith instead of proof…

Then a promise really is a promise, and we can be Allashua, and always come in from the cold where we are loved, held and cared for. 

And may it be so.


I will close on a song that always reminds me of my mom, who wore Chantilly perfume and one day after our mom had passed, as I was listening to this song with my sister Edna, she looked at me and said… Do you smell that? It smells like mom. 

Love knows no time, no plane of existence, no boundaries. Love is the promise. 

The song was:  

Sunshine on my shoulders 

looks so lovely

Sunshine in my eyes 

can make me cry

Sunshine on the water

looks so lovely

Sunshine 

Almost all the time

Makes me high….

MUSIC

I invite you to listen to the words of John Denver: Sunshine on my Shoulders by John Denver on Spotify.


BENEDICTION…

You are loved by the mystery.

You are held by the mystery.

And you are known by the mystery. 

Listen

Listen 

Listen  

Let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours.….

See you next Sunday at 2pm…


This is TinaO’s Ministry of Story. She is a sacred-listener in a divisive time, cultivating safe containers for real change-based connecting and conversation. She is a Storyteller rooted in Myth, Mysticism and the Christian Tradition. To Tina, communication is a spiritual practice of listening and following the living story of us. 

Her faith is in the space between us, where two or more are gathered, her trust is in the Mystery and her practice is listening and communicating from there. 

If you would like to receive her weekly Story Stones Sessions in your inbox,  click here to have it sent to you.


 


This is Fifty with TinaO

This is 50. But I’m not quite there. I’m 47 and like every milestone, their whisperings begin around the 7 mark: 17 begins 20, 27 begins 30, 37 to 40 and now this, fifty. A half century.

I’m already blessed because I have made it this far.  In 1962 the average life expectancy was 65 which means a whole lot of people in my circle (even me) could’ve been dead by now fifty five years ago. In 2018, our average life expectancy for women in Canada is 83. I wonder what it will be in twenty years. I’m guessing closer to 95. If that’s the case, right now, (if all goes well) I’m probably at the half way point. In these moments I wonder… good gawd, what on earth am I going to live through next?

I suspect everyone has an approaching 50 list. Here’s mine:

At almost fifty I am:

  • Shocked to be soon divorced.
  • Overwhelmed by how many more years I am willingly and yes lovingly carrying my children as a single parent (another decade).
  • Aware, grateful and still a bit raw about a journey through cancer.
  • Kind of ashamed by the financial collapse of my life, now twice, both post a marital breakdown.
  • I forgot that part, I’m soon to be divorced twice. Ugh. Twice. I’m a statistic too.
  • Almost 50 and I’m pretty awed by my psychological and physical constitution. I have endured many stories and I still smile, just not all the time.
  • Appreciative of this body of mine which carried me through my first triathlon months post cancer (seriously, what was I thinking?). I’m astounded by what this body can do, and how I can recover.
  • I am kind of disssociated from the achievement because I don’t really understand how it all happened and where the motivation came from. Have you ever felt like that?
  • Heartbroken by the randomness of loss I know to be part of this thing called life.
  • Lost in my own romanticism of possibility.
  • Drowning while still breathing my almost-50 yearnings.
  • Blown and breathless by the mystery that is Love, Art and God.
  • Clear that I never need to be ‘saved’ by any one person again.
  • Solid to be my own hero yet deeply aware and moved by the knowing none of us are here to do this or be alone.
  • I am almost fifty.
  • I am my own hero, my own sunflower, my own carpet of magic, and my own story stone in the ocean.

And still,

Life kicks my ass sometimes, cracks my heart open so wide I swear my heartbeat meshes with the pulse of the sun, and life and all it’s messiness can bring me to my knees in utter helpless, and hopeless beauty.

This is 50.

If you’re familiar with my writing you’ll know ‘this’ is what I do. Something wild this way comes and ‘this’ is what it looks like when my story tells me. After coffee and scrolling through travel adventures online, followed by deliciously facebook messaging a dear friend across the globe with my findings, I began to scribble some thoughts on a big hunk of paper.

This is 50. I wrote.

And then ‘that’ impulse came. Gahhhhh the familiar nudge, push and shove forward I know so well. That feeling launched my first vlog series which tracked my journey post cancer through to the Vancouver 5i50 triathlon in 2016. I turned my computer on.

Welcome to my next series on TinaOLife.

This is 50.

I’m three years out from five-oh and closing an old story. In the work I do as a story coach, I call this swimming between ripples.

The visual I use is this: it’s as if we come in to this world as a story stone and are dropped into the water and who we are, or our story ripples out. Every circle is the next, expanded version of the first one. Every ring another layer of who we are.

Swimming between ripples is letting go of one to follow the ease of the next. I’m going to share this next journey with you. I’ll be posting regularly here.  This is 50 with TinaO.

As always…

Thanks for listening.

In storyland, listening is loving.

xxT.

TinaO is a Writer, Story Coach, and Host of the TinaOShow, collecting and telling Stories from the Core. She’s the co-owner of The LEAP Learning Lab with Gina Best, and the other half of The Writer’s Compass with Meribeth Deen. She says: Stories are like toddlers, they will follow you around, tugging, hanging off of you until you listen to them.  TinaO is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening using writing, storytelling, nature, nourishment, art and connection as a way to listen to the personal story within. The retreat is held in various locations around the world, and is always offered 3x/year in British Columbia where she lives. All are welcome.
As always… let me know your thoughts. They’re always welcome.

The Writer’s Compass – No Chores Allowed- BLOG

NO CHORES ALLOWED

I don’t like vacuuming, and I particularly don’t enjoy vacuuming stairs. In order to do it well, I have to change the nozel, plug and unplug the vacuum, position the vacuum itself sideways across each step so it doesn’t fall off as I move up or down, and no matter what I try, I always end up banging or nicking the wall along the way.  Ugggggghhhh it’s just too much work. Vacuuming stairs is totally a chore.

I don’t mind doing the dishes. Yes, I have to give up twenty minutes of my life. Yes, I’m often cleaning up someone else’s jam, or scraping macaroni and cheese off someone else’s lunch pot, but it’s not so bad. Doing dishes may be work, but it doesn’t feel like a chore to me.

I don’t really have an opinion about laundry anymore. It’s not work or a chore, it’s a habit. If I grumbled every time I unballed a dirty sock or folded a towel, laundry would be pretty obnoxious for me. I just do it. It’s not work. It’s not a chore. It’s become a practice.

Here’s a Zen Proverb I love because it sums up chores/work/practices and writing beautifully:

Before enlightenment;

chop wood carry water.

After enlightenment;

chop wood carry water. 

You’re likely writing something or you wouldn’t be reading this post. You’re probably hoping to find a tip to make your writing process easier, more efficient and maybe even more joyful.

So here it is: Don’t make writing a chore.

That’s it. That’s all. Make writing a choice by building a practice around it. Simply write and keep writing, and as you write, explore new ways to show up to the page again and again and again until the process becomes your practice and it feels like coming home.

Here are some tips to developing your writing practice:

  • Notice when words come easy for you. Is it when you’re the most awake with more thinking power? Is it when it’s late and there’s less energy to resist? Is it something else?
  • Try commiting to a small daily word count. Some people do their best work in a sustainable way with a 300-500 daily word count. Did you know Stephen King follows a 3000/day word count and some days he’s done before 11:30am? (BTW… if this makes you groan, you’re in good company. This is not my process).
  • Try linking writing with a regular activity. E.G. everytime you’re on the bus, write 300 words in your notebook.
  • Try using writing prompts by finishing a sentence which then becomes a paragraph. Set a timer for three minutes.
  • Try blocking out one, three to four day weekend per month and create a writing retreat around it. BTW…this is how I write in a non-chore, non-work way. I call myself an immersive writer.

These are just a few ideas to play with and there are oodles more out there. We’ll talk about many of them here.

Here’s the bottomline:  Don’t make writing a chore or you’ll be vacumming stairs all day, and who wants to do that? Bleccchhhhh…. not me, and Meribeth and I certainly don’t want that for you.

We want to help you write, finish and deliver your book… repeat.

Here’s to your writing adventure,

Much love,

TinaO

TinaO is a Writer, Story Coach and the other half of The Writer’s Compass with Meribeth Deen. She is the host of the TinaOShow, collecting and telling Stories from the Core and the co-owner with Gina Best of The Leap Learning Lab. The Writer’s Compass encourages writers to get off the beaten path and create impactful stories from the core. We teach: writing isn’t precious, it’s a practice. 
Want to join our online writing group? Check out our private Facebook Group: Core Story Writers here.

Two Stories Collide – VIDEO

This is the feeling we all avoid: dangling. Caught between two worlds. Transitions. Good-byes. There’s something about shifting from one world to the next that causes us all (and yes, I am going to be so bold as to say ALL) of us to go unconscious, like taking your eyes of the road to change the channel. In that brief second anything can happen, and it does.

Think about it. There’s a reason we can’t find our keys, our phone, or where we took off our shoes. Copious amounts of books have been written about how to be ‘present’.  Why? Because transitioning is a challenge on multiple levels:

  1. THE BRAIN. Our circuitry doesn’t do blended thinking. We’re not a margarita, we’re a seven layer dip. We stack one thought on top of another, piled onto another one. We may have multiple thoughts all at once, but it’s seriously, despite what you may think, our brain doesn’t mash together like pastry dough. You can’t gently knead it from one form into another. It doesn’t work that way. Did you know your capacity to have a ‘mix’ of multiple thoughts isn’t even physically possible until you’re five to seven old? Seriously… so all of us parents have to chill out a bit with our Kindergarten expectations. Our kid’s brains can’t hold two thoughts at the same time for awhile.  Those of us seven years old and up reading this, barely can too. We don’t blend our thinking, we switch tracks.  _____________________________________
  2. OUR FEELINGS. Enough said. While feelings are also a bi-product of our physical body in connection to the imprints and neuro-pathways we’ve created in our brain, they have been known to swoop in, dive bomb us with mini explosions, sometimes flooding us with a challenge to learn how to swim in the waves. They feel all mixed up. They do not seem like a seven layer dip, they feel like the aftermath mess of a holiday party. _____________________________________
  3. OUR EXPECTATIONS. We arrive home. In one moment we are turning our car off. In the next moment we are reaching to remove the keys from the ignition and we already have a thought in our head. Right? It’s probably something like: Did anyone think about dinner or do I have to? or Damn, I forgot to…, or Yay!!! I’m home!!! I’m so tired… or Okay, don’t forget to do this… this… and this… before you go to bed.  There are other, harder thoughts you may be having too. This thing called life is one long list of to do’s and measure-ups and our expectations keep us moving. It’s not just our body which is tired when we hit the pillow, our brain is too.

These are the everyday reasons why transitions can challenge us, and there are bigger, more dramatic ones too:

  • Grief
  • Anxiety
  • Exhaustion
  • Detachment
  • Panic
  • Despair
  • Emptiness
  • and many more.

There are multiple reasons why we choose to slip away from one moment into the void of a next one without acknowledging the micro-transition we are in, and that’s what change is, a series of micro-transitions.

One breath to the next.

One feeling to the next.

One noticing to the next.

One pang.

One swell.

One wink.

One tear.

One thought.

One impulse.

One step.

One one one one one – on to another – one one one one one – to another one one one one one. That’s what change is.

Some days like New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Week, we enter a forced transition. One year closes and within a micro-transition we are thrust into the fireworks of a new one. Some of us don’t like being told what to do so  time becomes a ‘construct’, others of us love structure and in light of the New Year, we’re on the hunt for the best day-timer ever, some of us choose to not invest at all, in any of it and we just go to the party.

Not right.

Not wrong.

Not attached, nor detached.

It’s something that happens every year on this human plane called our life – two stories collide called New Year’s Eve (and week) and some of us get lost in it for very personal and logical reasons.

Here’s what I want you to know: You’re okay. You’re good. You’ve got this. You are not your feelings, or time, or your thoughts. You are YOU, and there’s a hell of a lot of shit going on inside of you during a transition.

I got you right now, which means you got you too.

Happy New Year.

Because given a choice between saying:  Shitty New Year! or Unconscious New Year! or Scary New Year! I am choosing, in this micro-transition to wish you a HAPPY one.

I got you.

xxTinaO

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TinaO is a Writer, Story Coach, and Host of the TinaOShow, collecting and telling Stories from the Core. She’s the co-owner of The LEAP Learning Lab with Gina Best, and the other half of The Writer’s Compass with Meribeth Deen. She says: Stories are like toddlers, they will follow you around, tugging, hanging off of you until you listen to them.