Tag: Story Hits

And The Day After

November 16, 2020

Listen to TinaO read this poem below.

A feminist on the day after the 2016 USA election

I want to complain and trash the beach 

spill obnoxious tins of paint

confused by yellow shades of not-quite-green hues

all over the rocks

crash multiple bins of soot wrecking the sand

smearing clouds of murky shadows out to the wind

I am stained by this

I am slashed by this 

and I want to crumple the shoreline

drenched in wax

from holding a vigil

for an exhale that turned to anguish

with no chance to settle

I am furious

I bet I can swing King Tide logs over my head

fling them 

into the ocean

followed by these legs on a torso

this is no longer my body 

for I have left

Instead, 

I walk the beach

to make sense

of the madness 

I somehow

never saw coming

I fucking hate surprises

avoidable fingers

caught in windows and snagged in doors

or train wrecks we say never happen

until they do

now 

I bring 

teapots and towels

rings and rodents

fire and feathers

bobbles and babies

to this water

my hair is on backwards

and my neck

lays on the ground

I am not here

She screams into the pillow

suffocating

the trembling

the shaking 

and the bruised women

out from this silent

nod to misogyny in power

one hand on his bible

the other up her skirt

This is the man

they freely chose

to lead the very country where feminism

cut her teeth

so today I can walk

with multiple careers and a baby on each breast

Today I am a fraction safer on the street

even if every woman still knuckles 

her keys in her hand

to reach her car

For the next four years

you will find me

smashing teapots

and bleeding into the ground

This reality

is not mine

and yet 

if you visit my kitchen

you will find

I haven’t a cup left

Four years ago I woke up in shock that the world had gone mad. When Donald Trump was elected president it haunted me for days.

This is the morning after…

The day after the 2020 election, it was a very different walk on the beach for sure.

2016 and the Day After

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 #8 of sixteen Story Hits (vlogs) 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)

UNDER THIS, PLEASE PUT THIS IN THE PARAGRAPH FORMAT:

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.

Your Voice Matters

October 8, 2020

Nails

Listen to TinaO read the poem here.

Being literal is not my jam

as I stuff crayons into a rock faces

and wait for the wax to melt

so I can read

*

and typing isn’t logical

either

still once upon a teacher with cigarette long pink nails

taught me how to use the home row

fake I’m sure

the nails that is

but she could do it without click clacking at all

how real is that?

How to unwind mistakes from the roller of the

type

writer

so quietly

folded silently

with painless, spotlight-less

voice-less error

and drop it

drama free into the waste basket by your calves

from your skirt

because secretaries are discreet

*

her nails

had a voice

but she did not

*

Mrs. Hinton

taught me to type endless amounts of words

without

making a sound

Listen to TinaO Read the Poem here.

My VERY FIRST video ever recorded – 2014

Oh my… It’s interesting to me that I find this video cringe worthy. I realize that says more about my ego than it does about the video doesn’t it?

I think I sound preachy.

I think I risk being ‘divisive’.

I think I sound green and innocent and immature – and feisty.

Isn’t it interesting how much effort it takes to say something publicly?

That is my lesson in this video. I cared a lot about the stand the teachers were taking back then in 2014. The kids were out for five months. Nuts right? But I was firey about supporting the teachers so much so that I decided to share my world view in my first video ever.

This is the video that launched a thousand vlogs.

There are things in this video I want to take back, like the poem I’m reading above. I want to silently remove it from the roller, fold it up and painlessly drop it into the waste basket. And isn’t that interesting too?

The truth is, my position hasn’t changed at all, I just wish I could present it better. Again… totally, my ego talking. This was almost seven years ago. Wild.

You know, I wonder how much more willing we would be to truly say what we think and feel, if we acknowledged the courage it takes to be seen doing and saying anything at all.

I wonder.

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 #4 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.

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

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.

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.