You know what I love about albums from the seventies? They were unabashedly sentimental. They were also totally dramatic, and there was always something kinda innocent, naive almost in even the heaviest of the songs from that time. My favourite album from the 70’s is Carole King’s Tapestry – released in 1971.
Have you noticed that when artists share their music with us over a long period of time, it’s like we as the listener get to grow up with them.
And that’s what this post is about.
Over the last five years, every substantial pillar and support beam that was my ‘life’ came down.
Finances.
Marriage.
Career.
Health.
Ummm… what else is there? Air?
…Not my department.
And everywhere I fell, stood, stumbled and sang, you came with me. You leaned in as I launched Live Your Best Story (which is really where this chapter of change began) and where the photo above is taken from. You followed along as I turned my camera on and talked about nothing which might be something, and usually was. You sent me words of encouragement, gifts even, during the five months I was in bed pre, during and post cancer treatment, and you cheered me on as I set out on a triathlon eight months later. I was thirty pounds lighter with no fat on my body, and a nervous system screaming high alert! High alert! High alert! over and over to me. You swam with me as I complained and cried my way through every damn training swim I did. You waited for me when my marriage collapsed and I went dark for awhile and new words started to emerge from my lips – more poetic ones, softer somehow but with more grit than I was ever willing to share before. You stood with me through the God conversation as I chose to follow the sun…
and I still am…
following the sun…
You listened to me.
And you taught me how to listen.
Doesn’t this sound like a Carole King song?
my life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue.
An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view
A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold
A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold
For the next sixteen weeks, I am releasing a Story Hit (vlog) from our last five years together. Some will be favourites of mine, some will be your faves.
Remember the day I finally swam 1000 metres without a kick board and cried with joy telling you about it? Or the unrelenting anger, confusion and sadness the day after Donald Trump got into office? Or how about the lip sync of Carole King’s So Far Away during week one of the covid lockdown?
These are a few of the moments I remember, and they came from these places:
#100 Love – The Triathlon
The Beach Sessions
Story Tuesdays
Sanctuary Sunday
Walk and Talks with Meribeth
These are my ‘greatest hits’, and just like a 1970’s album, I’m going to risk being sentimental, dramatic and real. I’m going to tell you a story as I close this book of Where We’ve Been and crack the binding on the next one.
And the new book is literally a book.
My first book, Story Stones will be delivered to the publisher January 31st, and my one woman show: O MY GOD starts rehearsal mid February 2021.
STORY STONES: The layering of the twelve Core Stories which emerged from hundreds of individual calls, with a corresponding Origin story like: Spider Woman and the Four Creations (Hopi), Let There Be (Judeo Christian), Popul Vuh (Mayan) and more, and pulling these layers together is the saga of my triathlon journey as an injured non-swimmer who is only months out of cancer treatment and on the verge of divorce. This book asks: What if we are not broken? What is the narrative of our individual life force that carries both our divine medicine and our poison. What if we chose to surrender to the story of who we truly are?
O MY GOD: A young girl is haunted by a 15,000 year old giant, a painfully self-conscious witch returns to church, and a Celtic shape-shifting mistress of war explain the purpose of religion while being visited by mythological Gods and Goddesses who offer jokes, warnings and insights about the sacred irrelevance of God.
That’s where we’re going.
But today… let’s celebrate and remember where we’ve been.
Won’t you join me for the next sixteen weeks as we turn on the record player, gently place the needle down, cozy up on the couch and listen to the stories we’ve shared over the last five years?
A story doesn’t let go of us until it’s been fully heard.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for hearing me.
RELEASE #1 – ‘Out of the Water’ will be delivered to you on Saturday, September 13th.
For now… I leave you with this:
See you Saturday.
xxT
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.