Too Woo Woo for Me

November 2, 2020

Artsy

Listen to TinaO read the poem here.

I’m one of the girls you think about

Listening to snowflakes

growing holly from my elbows

cedars flanking my spine

and this collarbone,

dotted with red berries

I walk these paths,

barefoot,

toes, who can’t help themselves but flirt

with you,

each padded foot-fall

across the forest floor

smirking

and winking,

sparkles lifting off

from the soft bed

of the earth

with each step

You notice

She’s cute

you think.

Skirt smudged with sand

jacket dripping with ocean behind her

always

with a stone in her pocket

The wondering

where her mind goes

How her hands move

How her throat opens

How sound carries through her body

How she breathes in colour

Artsy

is what you say

not at all, what you think

but it’s the only way

you know how to explain

the taste of how she lives

from your mouth

WHERE WE’VE BEEN – circa 2016

I was working through the label of ‘woo woo’ which is thrown around lovingly and always jokingly… but always with an element of judgement underneath.

It was time to say… I am woo… and it’s what makes me think the way I do.

A little time in one of my favourite places – Mt. Gardiner Dock – 2016

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 of you until they’ve been fully heard.

This is release #5 of sixteen weeks of Story Hits (vlog) from as far back as 2013. Some are my favourites, some are yours. If you missed week #1, you can start at the beginning with: Out of the Water 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.

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.

Hold on to What You Know – TinaO

September 28, 2020

Drivers

Listen to TinaO read this poem here.

Four wheels don’t make a driver
Some of us are gap fillers
Never considering how long it takes to stop before we start
or leaving a space between the cars
or a breath before the accident

–

Drivers read the room

they notice the way the rain hits

the window

It’s the rhythm of our repetition

and our listening through the weather

that keeps us rooted,

We drive through the exhale we can no longer hear

–

Drivers always take in

what doesn’t move around them

they drive conversation so they don’t sputter and fall

they grab up all the discomfort

like doughy circles of bread

squishing them into cubes

between our fingers

and palms

smaller and smaller

until just dense enough to stomach them

in one

efficient swallow

–

We drive the impossible

into the wreckage of exhausted potential

–

We’re weird like that

Drivers

–

We think anything can be done,

rescued,

revitalized,

made into something it’s not

and never has been

–

We tell ourselves

capacity

is a moveable thing

and not a boundary

or a sign of where something ends

where we’re so full we simply cannot take any more in

Drivers look at these lines as cartoons,

something we can erase and redraw

or pick up and put down wherever we need them to be

–

But drivers don’t read maps this way

on paper

on the road

or in actual life

where breathing back and forth

can happen,

No,

valleys, cliffs and deserts are not

merely suggestions

there

We are drivers

and we will drive til it’s done

–

I am a driver

I have driven the things I want into what I want them to be

Til I see a moment like it’s not

Til it’s better

Because I made it that way

–

I get shit done,

I make up new rules for the road

and I can see in the dark

–

So why?

Why would I stop driving now?

–

Listen to this poem ready by TinaO here.

Story Hit #3 – Hold on to What You Know

(or How Live Your Best Story Came to Be)

From Where We’ve Been: TinaO’s Story Hit’s Compilation

https://youtu.be/-UDdZ0qmmmo

From October 2016 – almost three months post cancer treatment

These vlogs track where we’ve been together over the last seven years. I share them with you to close one story and 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.
This is release #3 of sixteen weeks of Story Hits (vlog) from as far back as 2013. Some are my favourites, some are yours. If you missed week #1 and #2 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).
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).

Thank you for listening.

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

September 12, 2020

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.

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

June 14, 2020

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,

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.

Project Bandaloop

June 12, 2016

If I was a dancer, this is whom I would be.

I caught myself wondering this morning, at 45 years old,

post three 10lb baby boys created, built, buoyed and birthed through this body,

almost one year aprés radiation sickness zapping the shit out of tonsil cancer, no bum, no boobs, no breath, no boundaries

one month pre-first-5i50-triathlon, All re:, rebuild, restore, renew, reYes to this body, all mine.

Re-mine

Re-mind

it’s mine

With the scars

I’ve shed

of loneliness, harrowing calls for a fucking hand to grasp on to, curdling sobs of nothing, never, hating to ever ask why, with an empty belly of scraps for answers, lost in existential bullshit truthshit myshit – still lost

no,

I’m not

never have been.

Always found but too poetic to call out

found in the same place I came in.

If I was a dancer, I’d do

This.

I love the muscle, the discipline, the dance.

The ache of yearning to touch the unknowable

Throwing myself wild yet held, trusted, caught.

The throb of music speaking to me through me, threw me as me. In the construct of this body, my home for endless unforgiving beauty, relentless fire of scorching purple, passion, my touch down so tender with each flex, muscled palm, arch, heel

toe, pad pad pad

and fly.

I can fucking fly.

launch wide – out out out still more out

there

curve back, looking up, tumbling every which way my body contorts in partnership with the sky.

with him.

with her.

with them.

I surrender wide, full, brazen

glorious

knowing I am held.

That’s what I would be, if I was a dancer.

Thx to Patti Jo for posting this, it completely changed my morning. I didn’t know I was writing today, but clearly, I was.

xxT

TinaO is a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub for all things worth living for, the workshop Live Your Best Story, and her coaching practice: Tall Poppy Living. She’s also a professional network marketer with a decade in the industry and with her Tall Poppy Living for Network Marketers Coaching Program, she teaches: selling isn’t slimey and marketing isn’t make-believe. You can be yourself and be successful in Direct Sales.

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Young With You

March 17, 2016

I would intro this piece by Rodney DeCroo… but why? Read. Feel. Listen. Fall in.

Yes, there’s a link to the recording below. Just buy it–but enjoy the lyrics first.

Young With You

We could talk about the old times,
We could dig up all those graves,
We could set the dead to talking,
But we don’t know what they might say.

So please don’t say you’re sorry,
I don’t need that from you,
To be young is to be reckless,
I’m glad I was young with you.

We could walk along the seashore,
We could stare out at the waves,
We could pretend we live forever,
But we don’t think that way.

So please don’t say you’re sorry,
I don’t need that from you,
To be young is to be reckless,
I’m glad I was young with you.

Some poets have said,
All our loves we will destroy,
Some poets have said,
In our sorrow lies our joy,

But I don’t feel any wiser,
Than I ever felt before,
And I still have no idea,
What we’re here for.

So please don’t say you’re sorry,
I don’t need that from you,
To be young is to be reckless,
I’m glad I was young with you.

Want to hear him sing it? Yeah you do. So here it is.

Hey… Rodney has a gig on March 26th.

Check it out below.

MARCH 26 / Showcase @ Backspace

Date: Saturday, March 26th

Time: Doors 7pm / Show 8pm

Where: Backspace (1318 Grant Street Vancouver / Lane Entrance)

Cost: $15 advance / $20 door

Tickets: Online via eventbrite, by phone 604-831-6263,

Highlife Records, Red Cat Records, Zulu Records

Drink: Cash Bar

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1701244626755840/

About: Don’t miss this show show between country-noir / folk-country artists and old friends Rodney DeCroo + The Wise Blood and Carolyn Mark!

Rodney DeCroo is a songwriter, poet and playwright. He has released 6 full-length albums, an album of poetry set to music (Allegheny), a book of poetry (Allegheny, BC) and a theatre production (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) that received critical acclaim at several Canadian fringe and writers festivals. DeCroo wrestles with regret, loss, aging, love, memory, death, art—always with his own ongoing recovery embedded in the background. DeCroo’s album and performances draw upon his greatest natural resource—his poetry.

Want to buy his music? Find him here on itunes. Want to catch him in concert? Check out his calendar here.

There’s a Crack in Everything

March 3, 2016

A lot of my work- and the work of music writers/ journalists / bloggers who’ve been kind enough to write about it- focuses on the hardships I faced as a child, teen and early adult. Why that is isn’t a mystery. Intense situations and struggles are the stuff of drama. They push us past normal and safe where we feel in control into the painful and chaotic realm of trauma, but that’s also where beauty, transformation, love, mystery, compassion and profound connections can swoop in to reveal who we really are and what we’re really capable of. As Leonard Cohen sings:

“There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

A mentor of mine who passed away ago a few years ago used to say to me “When I need to touch God Rodney I touch you.” He wasn’t referring to me specifically, he meant that reaching out to others, sometimes for help, sometimes to help was where he truly found himself over and over again.

While I had to deal with a lot of pain as a child and an adult, I’ve also been extremely fortunate. I’ve had many generous and gifted people come into my life to guide me. It’s crazy how lucky I’ve been. It’s like in Greek myths how the hero (or in my case the anti-hero) keeps getting helped by mysterious strangers (the gods in disguise) when he or she needs it most. A folksinger I know, Rick Keating, has a lyric in a song that says “I keep on getting saved.” Yep.

GONE
by Rodney DeCroo

My first apartment was a basement suite
near 41st and Oak. The owner Craig,
a drug dealer turned contractor
after a five year stint in Okalla,
rented cheaply to young men
in trouble. I found the place
through an ad on the wall
in the Social Assistance office.
The interview was in his kitchen.

“Come on!” he says “Have something to eat!”
when Diane asked if I was hungry.
I hadn’t eaten for two days
after spending my money getting drunk
at the Cobalt, but I told him
“No, I don’t want anything”.
“Listen,” he said “you’re not leaving this kitchen
until you’ve had one of Diane’s sandwiches.
So what’s it gonna be?”
“Okay, sure.”
“There you go! he shouted smacking the table.
“Are you looking for work?”
“Yes”.
I’m looking for laborers. You want to work for me?”
“Okay.”

As I ate the thick bread and rich meat
and drank the dark coffee offered to me,
I felt the hunger in my stomach,
my unwashed clothes and my shaking hands
as if for the first time. After he left me
in the furnished suite, I stood with my back
against the door looking at the room.
I wondered who’d been here before me
and why they were gone.

FYI… Rodney has two gigs coming up in Vancouver.

Check it out below.

MARCH 6 / House Concert @ Cliff’s House

Catch this intimate solo set from Rodney DeCroo, with support from The Minimalist Jug Band.

Time: Doors 1pm / Show 2-4pm
Where: # 2-868 Cassiar Street East Van ( near PNE )
Cost: Suggested donation of $15. Ticket reservations are recommended by the host as seating is limited.
Contact: kali@tonicrecords.com for reservation details.
Drink: BYOB ( please drink responsibly )
Food: Tasty finger foods provided

Link: http://www.tonicrecords.com/mar-6-house-show-from-rodney–decroo/

MARCH 10 / “A Circle in the Fire” @ The Heatley

Rodney DeCroo will be hosting and performing in the first event of a new monthly series, “A Circle in the Fire”, a songwriters-in-the-round evening. This evening will feature an eclectic mix of local folk songwriters + performers: Doug Andrews, Elise Hall-Meyer, and Caroline Allatt.

Date: Thursday, March 10th

Time: 8:00pm

Where: 696 E Hastings St.

Cost: No cover!

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/199995010359722/

Want to buy his music? Find him here on itunes. Want to catch him in concert? Check out his calendar here.

Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town

February 18, 2016

Yesterday I introduced you to Rodney DeCroo and what he’s bringing to TinaOLife.

Today, you experience him.

He’s been working a tag line that seems to follow him: Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town. We all have a story and part of Rodney’s is where he comes from.

Here are his lyrics and his song: Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town

She was someone I only dreamed of,
I was too scared to make a stand,
She was all my light,
Yes, she shined so bright,
For a stupid boy in an ugly town.

I’d go stand by the river,
I ‘d watch the barges floating past,
With their coal so black,
The color of all my lack,
I was a stupid boy in an ugly town.

She said Oh did I know you then?
She said Were we ever friends?
I said No, I just hung around,
I was a stupid boy in an ugly town.

I’d get drunk almost every weekend,
Behind the factory with my friends,
Then we’d get in fights,
Just another boring night,
For a stupid boy in an ugly town

watch the music video here.

I’d hear songs on the radio,
With their airbrushed harmonies,
They didn’t sound like me,
They said I’d always be,
A stupid boy in an ugly town.

She said Oh did I know you then?
She said Were we ever friends?
I said No, I just hung around,
I was a stupid boy in an ugly town.

Memories are stories,
They change as they are told,
But a part of me,
Will always be,
A stupid boy in an ugly town.

There’s something hauntingly intimate about embodying our roots, especially when we come from stupid and ugly. We’re all stupid and ugly. We’re all arrestingly, stupid and ugly.

And I’m gonna say it – that’s where stupid and ugly intersects with beautiful. It’s in all of us.

xxT

Rodney.

Want to buy his music? Find him here on itunes. Want to catch him in concert? Check out his calendar here.