Storycatcher : Making Sense of Our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story

Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond our individual borders to imagine the realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling {u2014} both oral tradition and written word {u2014} is the foundation of being human. In this powerful book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground for each other's stories. Each chapter in Storycatcher is carried by a fascinating narrative {u2014} about people, family, or community {u2014} intertwined with practical instruction about the nature of story, how it works, and how we can practice it in our lives. Whether exploring the personal stories revealed in our private journals, the stories of family legacy, the underlying stories that drive our organizations, or the stories that define our personal identity, Christina's book encourages us all to become storycatchers {u2014} and shows us how new stories lay the framework for a new world

This remarkable guide illustrates the compassion, empathy, and humanity attainable when sharing stories with another person. At the same time, it encourages readers to identify their own personal stories and learn to actively cherish and strengthen them for a stronger sense of fulfillment. Story, the author contends, is the lifeblood of who we are — it helps us position our own identity in the larger world and focuses us on our own history. Stories, in essence, individualize us, and Christina Baldwin invites her readers to unlock the immense power that story holds for each of us.

Following the beeline : how the story connects us -- The ear in the heart : the art of storycatching -- Tending our fire : why we make story -- It was a dark and stormy night : story wakes up -- Riding experience to wisdom : the map of a story-based life -- A story to stand on : creating a story of the self -- Writing and talking in the seven generations : how story heals family heritage -- We are the ones : the power of story in organizations -- The possible god : how story shapes the spiritual dimensions of our lives -- Storycatcher : taking our place in the order of things.