Story Telling Coach

Week One: My first story teller – The fox, the hen and o ye of little faith; grandpa would say.

My 1st Story Teller, if there ever came a day that I could remember a story, it would be today, and who would come to mind.. my grandfather. The fox and the hen – have you heard of them? I can’t remember the story in it’s entirety but I can remember the excitement I had waiting to hear a story.  Sometimes he would read from a story book and other times he would tell the story and suggest I use my imagination. Initially that would frustrate me as I thought that was so unfair and hard work – to have to use my imagination – the creative side of my mind. I had to imagine the size, color and environments, the buildings, the background and the voice tones of each character. I had to do more then just look at a picture, more then just rely on someone else’s powerful images and creativity… I had to dream of my own. I had to be amazing on my own as I match the story to the situation in my mind. I had to characterize each element and development of the story. Although I was excited to rise to the occasion, I would show a small sign of resistance because of my fear and doubt in my abilities to be creative. ‘O ye of little faith’ my grandpa would say. I remembered immediately closing my eyes thinking ‘oh yea, I’ll show you little faith’ – notice I said ‘thinking – I would NEVER voice such a thing.

Needless to say, I remember how I would curl up and sit next to my grandpa and never miss a word or a single breath. Some times the story was so rich in my mind, I could only see my granopa’s lips move and hear his breath while my mind ran wild from what he had just said. Was it the hen or was it the fox that had me so intrigued? I can’t remember, but I do know that both had a profound effect on my life.

There were events in my life that led me to operate with the smoothness of the fox and there were equal events in my life where I had to learn to survive like the hen. My grandpa had no idea how incredible those stories were to me, he had no idea how I looked toward my next story time with him, my grandpa had no idea – or did he? I know one thing, if he knew or not, I developed several skills of the fox, hen and I love the challenge of O ye of little faith!

I think he knew, thank you grand pa Blake!