60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey: Life Is Like a Big Red Bus

Hello to you listening in Port Townsend, Washington! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. There is no better way to explore Whidbey Island than catching a ride on Island Transit. Our zero fare rural transit system (with over half a million passenger trips annually) provides safe, accessible, convenient, and friendly public transportation services that enhance our Island quality of life. Check out the LINK to learn more:  Standing at a bus stop waiting for the next distinctively colored bus to arrive I was reminded of something my mom used to say: “Diane, life is like a big red bus and some folks get on fighting for the best seats to see the best views from the best vantage points when all of a sudden the bus ride is over and they saw nothing. Others are content to stand in the aisle and experience it the best they can being grateful for having gotten on the bus in the first place.” Question: What kind of bus passenger might you aspire to be?  You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, check out the Communication Services, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

Hello to you listening in Thune, Switzerland! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga. Maybe like me you’ve asked a friend for help in your hour of need. What did you get? “Just tie a knot in the end of your rope and hold on to that.” Sure, with enough rope to tie a knot and enough strength to hold on you might be okay; but what if nothing is all you have? Imagine this: 6 women and 2 young guides high in the frigid and snowy Canadian Rocky Mountains on an Outward Bound mountaineering expedition. Our task was to scale the face of a mountain in pairs by climbing, using strength, handholds, and the safety ropes the guides had secured far above us and out of sight beyond a cliff edge. Climbing up my partner froze dangling between the top and the rocky ground below. She stammered out: “I can't find anything to hold on to.” Time passed. And then the voice of one of our guides called out, “Grab it with both hands!” It worked! She got all the way to the top! And, rappelled back down! I can still see that smile of accomplishment on her astonished face when her boots touched the ground. But how did she do it? My partner found the help she was looking for- inside herself. She discovered a secret: when you can’t find anything to hold on to, grab it with both hands! It works! You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, check out the Communication Services, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

Hello to you listening in Sussex Inlet, New South Wales! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.   Long long ago and far far away someone you love was born and began a life. Maybe it was you or a parent or a sibling, a friend, your partner. Do you know their story? Do they know yours? This is a very good time to collect those stories. Weekly on Story Prompt Friday I offer a bit of story and a prompt to get you started, either sitting with someone and collecting a story as part of the oral tradition or maybe for yourself as a way to spark your own writing. Story Prompt: What is the best sunrise you ever witnessed? Where were you? Who was with you? Or were you alone? What did the air feel like? What did you smell and hear? What brings the memory alive for you today? Write that story and share it out loud!  You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, check out the Communication Services, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Greeley, Colorado! Coming to you from Whidbey Island Washington, this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. I believe that our November to May Rain Festival is nearly over. Here in the Pacific Northwest we welcome clear skies, sunshine, warm weather, less winter burden, and maybe even dropping our shoulders from the habitual “fight or flight” response to the world that continues spinning on an axis of uncertain madness.  Habit. It’s like that story about a team of pack animals struggling their way up a mountainside. The last pony in line was wearing a saddle but the horse just ahead of him was burdened with boxes and bags and baskets. The pony said: Good grief, what a heavy load you’re carrying! The horse turned it’s head and asked: What load? Like that horse we get used to carrying so much we don’t even realize it. Practical Tip: Right now, in this moment stop, take a few deeps breaths, gently ease your shoulders away from your ears and smile to them; thank them for what they’ve been carrying for you and tell them that in the future you will take care to burden them less. Then wait for a moment while they smile back at you.    You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, check out the Communication Services, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Cortland, New York! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga. As the story goes the miracle of a human birth is as rare as a blind turtle that swims through the ocean surfacing once every 100 years and happens to raise its head through a single ring of seaweed randomly floating on the water. Equally rare is the opportunity to be living through cataclysmic crises capable of shifting a whole civilization. Internal changes, external pressures or environmental collapse have shifted whole civilizations. Crises are unfolding right before our very lives. Strange to think, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” [2008 Rahm Emanuel chief of staff to President Barack Obama] That being true, how might we exploit these cataclysmic crises instead of letting them go to waste? We start small. Each one doing just one thing beautifully. Why? Small actions done consistently with curiosity, compassion, and hope have the collective power to change the course of history! You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, check out the Communication Services, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in the Town of Flower Mound, Texas!  Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more for a story) for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.   Long ago, Father Sky gave Anansi the spider a large clay pot. This pot contained all the wisdom in the world - every secret, every solution, every insight that had ever been or ever would be. Anansi was thrilled. He clutched the pot close to his chest and began climbing up the tallest tree in the forest, thinking he would hide the pot at the very top where only he could reach it. All that wisdom would be his alone. But as he climbed the pot grew heavier and heavier. Wisdom kept spilling over the sides and falling like rain on the forest floor below. The harder Anansi tried to hold onto the pot and the tree the more wisdom fell to earth. From far below his young son called up: "Father, wouldn't it have been easier to tie the pot to your back?” Anansi stopped climbing. His own child had wisdom he didn't possess. He looked down at the forest floor where the spilled wisdom was taking root: flowers of understanding blooming, streams of compassion flowing, creatures gathering to drink from pools of imagination that sparkled in the sunlight. In that moment, Anansi knew he was wrong. He hurled the pot down from the tree where it shattered on the forest floor. All the wisdom scattered to the winds, settling into every corner of the world. That is why the old ones say no one person holds all the wisdom. It lives in each of us, waiting to be shared, waiting to be joined with others, waiting to become something greater than any one person could create alone. Story Prompt: What is the singular wisdom that you hold in your story that is ready to be shared? Write that story and tell it out loud!   You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during re-construction, check out the Communication Services, email me to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Lopez Island, Washington! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. Why is my Quarter Moon Story Arts logo a lighthouse? I was inspired! Admiralty Head Lighthouse here on Whidbey Island served as a critical navigational guide back in the day of sailing ships traveling from the Pacific Ocean through the treacherous Strait of San Juan de Fuca. Sixteen miles from Admiralty Inlet ship captains could see the white light in the darkness warning them to steer a hard right to starboard, avoid the cliffs, and continue safely south through Puget Sound and on to Seattle. How did the captain know he was seeing Admiralty Head Lighthouse? Each lighthouse - no matter where in the world - has its very own distinctive light pattern, or signature, like an address on a house. Lighthouses mark points of navigation, warn about dangerous coastlines, and guide ships into safe harbor. But harbors are not created equal. Different harbors for different boats. A lighthouse stationed at a harbor entrance doesn’t run up and down the coast beckoning all boats to its harbor. It serves a particular sized boat. Lighthouses don’t chase boats; why do you chase clients? Question: What is it only you have to offer? Who needs and wants it? Who is meant to be drawn to your harbor? How will you attract your particular client with your own distinctive beacon of light? And, how will they know you are signaling them? CTA: If you could use a hand with your lighthouse questions, email me at [email protected] and we’ll get working on the answers. You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during re-construction, check out the Communication Services, email me to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Create Space, Langley, Washington!  Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga. Not too very long ago I saw a man wearing a tee shirt with these words: “Many things in life will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart. Follow those.” He was gone before I could ask him: What’s the story behind your tee shirt?  How did you come to have it? What things in life have caught your eye? What caught your heart? And when you followed those what happened next? Today more than ever women need the stories that catch their heart. The storytelling tradition is alive in you. Each time you share a story, you've grown. You catch something new. You see yourself differently. As a woman navigating a professional world that doesn't always invite your full story, you may have learned to edit yourself — to show up with credentials and minimize the rest. But your personal narrative is your most powerful asset. It connects, persuades, inspires, and leads. You don't have to wait for permission to tell your story. This is your invitation to discover the stories shaping your life, and to unlock the full power and energy of your voice. Because when women tell their true stories, they don't just change the room. They change what's possible. Your voice is ready. Are you? CTA: I’ll be offering more classes on The Art & Craft of Telling Personal Stories at Create Space, at gatherings on Whidbey Island, and online. Learn more here and on Substack as we build a story community of women for women.   And thank you for listening! You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during re-construction, check out the Communication Services, email me to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.  

Hello to you listening in Dublin, New Hampshire! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more) for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga. Imagine this: It’s February 1998. You are 89 years old. You have arthritis and emphysema. You live in a small town in New Hampshire. You laid to rest your husband of 65 years after caring for him with Alzheimer’s the last 10 years of his life. Your best friend of 50 years has also died. Now what, asks your son? What will you do? I have an idea, you say. Money is the big divider between people and politics. The tycoons with the money are buying the politicians and making all the decisions. Someone has to tell the American people about the need for national campaign finance reform. I can do that. How, your son wants to know. I’ll go on a walk. And so she begins getting in shape walking 2 miles a day, 5 miles a day, 10 miles a day, and carrying a backpack. After 7 months she declares herself ready to go on a walk and tells her son she is starting in Los Angeles, California. After collecting petitions on a beach in Los Angeles Doris Haddock, a.k.a. Granny D begins 14-month walk across America through California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Arkansas and on up to Washington, DC. She has no GoFundMe account or any real plan except to get out and talk to as many people as she can about the need for campaign finance reform. My friend Granny D eats with the people she walks with along the way, sleeps in a spare bedroom, on a couch or in a church basement. She gives talks about national campaign finance reform at rodeos, county fairs, schools, and local gatherings. 10 miles a day, every day, walking across America in her 90th year. By the time Granny D arrives in Washington, DC a blizzard has blocked traffic so she cross-country skies to the Capital to meet then Senators McCain & Feingold who sponsored the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act which will become law 2 years later in 2002. The primary purpose of the Act was to eliminate the increased use of so-called soft money to fund advertising by political parties on behalf of their candidates.     Of her walk Granny D always had her doubts; but she persisted. Here we are 25 years later and deeper in soft-money shit than she could have imagined thanks to the bought and paid for SCOTUS decision in Citizens United that equated money with free speech, kicked open the floodgates to a tsunami of dark money, and tilted political influence toward wealthy donors tycoons, and corporations.     I knew Granny D, we wrote letters back and forth. Sometimes I wonder: What was the point? What difference did 14 months of walking and talking do? I’ll tell you. It did this: I’m still talking about her and the wild possibility that she actually realized. She was one Ordinary Person who took up a cause she believed in, talked to thousands of people as she walked across America in her 90th year and kept on talking until she died at the age of 100. Like every good story Granny D lives on to inspire, motivate, and remind each of us - young and old - what we are capable of, what we can achieve before and even after our 90th year.   Yes! we are Ordinary Persons standing shoulder to shoulder with other Ordinary Persons drawn together like filings to a magnet building an Army of Ordinary Persons to Free America, unbalance the status quo, and create a Citizen’s Future of hope, dignity, and inclusion. We are the stories of light we struggle to write in these dark times and will be proud to share with those we leave behind when we walk on.   Story Prompt: Who are you? What is your declaration of wild possibility? How are you shaping the future for good? Write that story and share it out loud ! You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, email me to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Bow-Edison, Skagit County, Washington! Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. “Being underestimated because of gender (or any other reason) is an advantage when you’re a spy on the street trying to move around unobserved. Being underestimated is a problem for everybody when you are a woman in a national security community trying to make yourself heard about something important you have discovered.” [The Sisterhood - The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy]   Reading those words from The Sisterhood - The Secret History of Women at the CIA reminded me of all the ways in which women feel underestimated, personally as well as professionally. How do we correct that? It starts with unlocking the power of clarity and intentionality that is Your Who. We each have a particular story at the core of our lives: our Origin Story. Our Origin Story reveals how we got from There to Here. When we own our Origin Story we stand in courage and confidence. How so? By trusting the hardships we’ve faced and achievements we’ve won we connect with our self-worth, what we stand for, what we won’t stand for, what we no longer fear. We have something to say because we discovered WHO we are. This gives us the power to be heard and listened to. CTA: If you’re curious about how to make yourself heard by creating Your Who, email me ([email protected]) OR tap the Link in the Episode Notes to schedule a no-obligation Discovery Chat.  You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, email me to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.