Stories from the Siuslaw Public Library

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Siuslaw Public Library is a valuable community library. Its structure, like many Oregon libraries, holds so much more than books. Director Meg Spencer shepherds the library in gathering a multitude of educational events, in-person programming, online learning, and even a walking program for the vibrant coastal town.

The library was kind enough to host me for my Heart of the Story podcasting workshop. This was funded by the fellowship I received from Oregon Humanities, and we were in one of their modern meeting rooms. It was an extremely well-attended workshop.

One of the most delightful parts of teaching these classes is the amazing variety of subjects that the attendees want to talk about. So many people in Oregon are passionate about what they love, and they just want to share their stories. They want to have a chance to talk about the things that interest them on a larger scale, and they want to meet people who share those same interests.

I often tell participants in my classes that you can't get too specific. If you want to start a podcast about, say, tracking whales from season to season, you can structure your show about all different things that are connected to premise. You can feature interviews with marine biologists. You could talk to oceanographers, talk about the areas where the whales are traversing back and forth. You could explain one whale's journey from the calving grounds to where it goes in the summertime.

Dive deep into anything that you care about, and you can have enough material to carry a show without too much effort. It's all about curiosity and a willingness to follow the questions you have about what you like. I think these are excellent qualities and tools that can help us connect.

I asked four people from my class in Florence to share what I call the heart of their story—what you might also call an elevator pitch. It's a short description of who they are, the things they want to cover, and why.

Melinda Butterfield

My name is Melinda Butterfield, and I've recently moved to Florence, and I've found my home and my heart. I really want give back to the community with my soul callings, which are teaching as well as life coaching and doing healing work. And an opportunity opened up when I met Holly Walker, and we decided that we wanted to have our radio show on KXCR 90.7 FM, which is a local Florence show.

We have an hour show every week that's called Universal Radio: Exploring the Inner Realm. What we talk about is really a conversation, what has been coming up in the collective energy fields.

We interviewed Holly's husband, Travis, and talked about his healing modality using tuning forks. That was very interesting. I use tuning forks in the work that I do as well. Also, we're having an interview with a lady that is connecting with the whales because she has Native American heritage, and that is her practice, to be able to connect with the animals so deeply. And so she's going to play her flute as well.

So it's a variety of different things, but it's mostly exploring the inner realms in a conversational, natural way. There is extreme depth to it. We almost cry. We laugh all the time. It's a deep connection that Holly and I have together, and we're so glad that we found each other.

Next I want to do a five-minute, astrology-type show. I want talk about not just astrology, but gene keys, human design, and ancient I Ching. I might throw in a little bit of astrology. The name of the show is Cosmic Soup: What Are the Planets Stirring Up? It might be a lunchtime spot that will give you a very simple way to use the energies that are present at that particular transit in a very practical way. I take the mystical make it practical, and I'll probably do some really deep contemplative questions—really diving into what wants to come through you.

Stephanie Stratton

I own Bucket List Travel here in Florence, and I want to start a podcast based on my blog called Postcards from the Bucket List. I also have a journal that I created that is now on sale on Amazon called Postcards from My Bucket List.

The podcast would be geared towards the blog and the journal. I would interview people who have checked off items on their bucket lists and hear their stories. I want to inspire people to travel and live their life, fulfill their dreams.

Angela Clements

I was a wife and a homeschooling mother of three. They've graduated now, starting their own families and starting to homeschool their kids, some of them. And I'd like to encourage people about my journey and how they can use my journey as a way to begin their journey.

When I began, I had a family, the Swan family, that gave me their story. I patterned my homeschooling a lot around their story. Even the kids presented some of their story to us. And yet my homeschool was so much different than theirs in every possible way.

It's encouraging just to hear that other people have succeeded and that their children didn't die, that their children were able to go get into society as normal human beings and be productive. So that's what I'd like to do, is encourage other homeschooling families that might just be beginning or families that are somewhere in the middle of it.

A big part is how to finish homeschooling without your kids living with you for the rest of your life. My goal was for my kids to go to college. And my kids began going to college at fifteen years old and fourteen years old. My most ambitious student got two master's degrees when she was twenty! We had a big victory dance over that. I have things that I'd like to share with families on how to cut the public school out of their life and teach their own kids.

Kat Cunningham

The reason I want a podcast is because it's important to get the information out to every individual that we are connected to nature, and nature gives us so much in the way of gifts. We can work with our body, our mind, and our spirit by connecting to nature.

This kind of a podcast is designed to be able to help people to make feel-good decisions. Instead of focusing on what's outside of themselves, they need to start to see that it's what's inside are where the gifts are. These gifts can be how to develop your intuition, how to be able to sense things that are around you all the time.

The podcast will be dealing with the three-six-nine, which is the way our universe is designed, and that is the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. As a practitioner of this process, I have spent almost thirty years doing everything from talking to camels to learning that plants actually can be used for more than salads. How you plant is important, how you work with your gardens. Be paying attention to all of the things that are around you: You're learning from them, and you're supporting by them, and you're communicating with them. If we would cocreate with all of these elementals, life could really be a different process, and that's what's going to happen on this podcast.

Jennifer

The people who participated in my class brought what they were so, so interested in. And I find that, as a podcast listener, those are the things that I'm drawn to. I told each of these people and each of the people in my classes, "There is definitely a market for what you have to say. There's always going to be someone interested."

That's the beauty about podcasting, and such a gift that I've been able to share through Oregon Humanities: the ability to communicate in a different way with people all around the world.

I've created a database of all the people in all of my classes around the state this year are going to be able to connect with each other. They're going to be able to start growing their own communities of people who can help each other and people who might be interested in the things that they're talking about. It's been such a gift to be able to speak with all these people and teach them the things that I know so that they can share the things that they love.

Tags

Place, Storytelling, Community Storytelling Fellowship