Wednesdays on Whidbey: Are You Living an UNrecorded Life? How to Make Recorded Moments Memorable

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.    Revisiting Camino experiences. I‘ve been virtually retracing my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage steps—5 weeks, 500 miles across Spain—revisiting lived experiences and all those memory moments—as I do every year on the anniversary.                                             Struggles. By this time back then I’d been on the road almost 2 weeks. I was slowly gaining strength, endurance, and confidence in meeting what would happen next. I didn’t always know where I was headed or what challenges I’d meet. Would I get lost? Would the albergue (the pilgrim hostel) be full and no beds available; and, if so, where would I sleep for the night? Where would I find food and clean drinking water? Would I be able to cover the miles I needed to?        On this day I planned to trek 18 miles—mostly back roads and fields. The weather was good. The scorching heat of summer had begin to melt away leaving yellowing leaves on trees, harvested furrows and cooler days. But I was tiring after such a long day carrying my 15-pound pack. Was I going to make it?        Precious rest. My sights were set on arriving at Casa de Magica, an albergue in Lorca. A break from the usual overflowing dorm rooms with tripled stacked beds, plastic-covered mattresses and snoring, lots of snoring. This beautifully restored stone house with it’s inviting name, only 11 beds, and sheltered in a small village promised peace, quiet, rest! And, paella!    Food on the Camino. Good food does more than fuel the body. Shared meals—a signature part of the pilgrim journey—fortify the heart. Albergue meals could be hit or miss. Some albergues offered a small bowl of pasta with pesto and a green salad. In others you might get soup and bread, green beans with garlic, fried trout, and maybe yogurt for dessert. On occasion those meals became family dinners when we pilgrims were welcomed into the family kitchen. Casa de Magica promised such a welcome and homemade traditional paella!  If only I could make it before my stumbling feet gave out.    Casa de Magica. After another six miles I staggered in the front door. I had arrived at Casa de Magica. Leaving my boots and trekking poles in a box for that purpose I padded in my socks behind the hospitelero as he showed me to the last open bed in a small room with 5 other women pilgrims. I checked for bedbugs, spread out my sleeping bag, put my pack on the floor and headed downstairs, across an old stone courtyard and into a small stone building where clean plastic bins were stacked on the floor alongside a large jug of red wine vinegar and a box of coarse salt. When mixed with ice cold water the solution became a refreshing soak for tired feet and shins. Try it sometime. It’s like magica!        I dried my feet, slipped on my sandals and snugged down into a hammock hanging from old crossbeams in the building. It was time to rest.    No paella for us.  But then the hospitelero knelt by my side and said that he was very sorry but he could not make the paella as promised. Someone in the family was sick and he had to leave. Now what? This was a small village with no cafes. It was getting late.    I joined a few pilgrims in the courtyard and we set out to see what we could find. Like magica we spotted a mercado but the shopkeeper was closing up ready to head home to his own supper. Unlike our 24/7 grocery stores, a mercado is a small shop with local foods, fresh produce and vino tinto (good red wine). Having patiently listened while we explained our plight, the shopkeeper unlocked the door and welcomed us inside so we could shop for what we needed.      The albergue kitchen. Bustling back to the albergue kitchen with our supplies we worked together to prepare an elegant meal: sliced tomatoes, potatoes boiled in their jackets, diced bacon with wilted spinach, and huevos fritos: eggs basted in copious amounts of virgin olive oil. Bringing our plates to the old wooden table we took our seats, sat and ate relishing the nourishing food, the collective effort, and the profound sense of Camino magic. In the morning we would likely go our separate ways making and collecting more memory moments. For me, all these years later, this meal is still magica.    Story Prompt: What has made a meal memorable, even magical, for you? Write that story! Share it out loud.    As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word!”   YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

     Hello to you listening wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.      Everywhere in the world women are living their lives unrecorded. What’s up with that? What’s the use of  unrecorded lives? What are we afraid will happen if we put pen to paper to set down one memory moment of our lived experience? If we had the courage to venture into the depth of inquiry that guides a nice essay to a memorable story, what unexpected magic, freedom, or self-understanding might happen next?      The depth of inquiry into our personal narratives moves even the best essays away from a nice recounting of facts and events and what happened to what did it all mean?  There’s more to your story than facts and events. Our stories become memorable when we deeply explore our lived experience, become curious about our motivations, what was at stake, the choices we made, the risks we took, and then reflect on how those experiences earned us a hard-won lesson.    To get started recording a lived memory moment experience you recall—maybe the first job you ever had or the first time you stood up for yourself—set down the time, place and setting of the facts and events as you remember them. Next, capture highlights of the character (that would be you), who she was, how she was living her life, and why we might care about her. What was the event that upended her daily routine and set her up to want something different for herself? What was the problem that got in the way of what she wanted and how did she overcome it?    Now we’re embarking on the depth of inquiry. We focus our attention on the character’s underlying emotions, feelings, fears, doubts, struggles, and values. These personal truths help us understand the meaning of what has happened when her routine was upended, what was at stake for her, and why she chooses to do what she does to get what she so keenly desires, come what may.    When we dig deep into our lived experiences by asking  difficult questions, refusing to accept our initial reactions, and allowing the story to lead us, we transform surface answers into self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-affirmation.    With this first step we have begun to live a recorded life. What was the experience like for you? What is your next story?    If you could use a little help from a story doula who could listen your personal story out of you, click HERE to schedule time for a brief Discovery Call. What happens next ...?        As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word!”   YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

      Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground. And, Happy Birthday, Patrice from wherever your feet are touching our Jersey Girl ground!      As I have done at this time every year I retrieve a cardboard box from a shelf in my closet, set it on the diningroom table, open the top, and take out a spiral notebook, a guidebook, and a few tokens. The notebook is the journal I kept as I walked 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. I was a pilgrim. The guidebook helped to shepherd me from place to place, score a clean albergue for the night, and find a low-cost pilgrim meal. The tokens remind me of who I met or something very special I stumbled upon.    From now until the 1st of November I’ll be rereading my words jotted at the end of a long day of walking, maybe 15, 20 or 25 miles. Hot sun or cold rain, flat concrete sidewalks or rocky mountain passes. The walk is the path. The walk is the journey. The walk is the destination back home to self.    But I had to learn this truth. It took long days before my head and heart and feet began to harmonize. I had to stop myself in the middle of the path because I was running ahead, chasing my shadow. I wanted to be there first, wherever there was.    The cost of the chase was high. All around me was beauty, people, landscapes, animals, vistas, grapes ripening on vines, men harvesting in fields, and old ladies clustered together shelling peas into bowls and trading gossip. My mind was miles ahead of my body.    l had to stop, intentionally and practice something my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh always preached: mindful walking. Take a step and breathe in. Take a step and breathe out. Keep going. Mindfully. In this way I got where I needed to get. I slept where I needed to sleep. I met who I needed to meet. Because I had arrived in each moment of walking.          I chose this podcast image from Deer Park Monastery where I often went on retreat. It’s my cell phone shot of the sign I anticipated seeing as I drove down a narrow road to the parking lot below the hill where the monastery was situated. As soon as I saw the words, I Have Arrived, my breathing slowed, my shoulders relaxed, and everything about me seemed to melt. Arrived. Arrived. At home, I am at home.    We clamor to know what’s next and what if and how soon and when will we arrive. We chase the future in the hope that we will arrive at happiness. Here’s the thing about chasing arrival: When we get what we have been racing toward it rarely feels the way we expected. An inner voice whispers, “Somehow I imagined this experience would be more rewarding.”      Story Prompt: If you stopped right now, stopped chasing your life, and imagined yourself being present right inside your life, right where you belong, what might happen next? Write that story and share it out loud.                            And, as always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word.” YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star Apple podcast review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    I am thrilled to announce that Quarter Moon Story Arts is live to the world with a new website designed by women for women to know themselves and each other through their stories. But not just any story. This is the space for women who are curious about how to discover and navigate their midlife pilgrimage stories so that they don’t go unrecorded.      One who knew the radical power of discovering and revealing your personal narrative was Gloria Steinem. She left behind her final unedited public thoughts about the vital role of women sharing their stories, as follows:    “Hello, all you unique individuals out there. I’m so glad to be meeting you through the magic of the media. I wish I could meet each one of you in person, but in a way, this is what allows us now to see each other’s lives, to influence each other’s lives, to respect each other — and to, therefore, perpetuate what we hope is a global democracy.    “Please feel free to respond in any way you can, and please tell your own story. This is the most important thing we can do for each other—to know each other through stories. And I hope so much that whoever you are, listening right now, you are able to do what you love—[and] to be, also, the unique person you are.”    Midlife as sacred. How might you get to that place of what awaits you as the unique woman you are? By exploring your midlife transition as if you are on pilgrimage. Midlife is a sacred space of transition. A pilgrimage mirrors the sacred realm between leaving behind your normal and familiar life while you journey toward a destination where old rules fade and new truths can form.    Letting go. When you step out on pilgrimage, literally or figuratively, you leave home, walk away from your safe, known world and leave your daily routines behind. You have no fixed identity anymore. Your regular job, status, and titles do not matter on the path. While you walk the open road you exist in a temporary space where you only focus on the next step forward.    Transformation. What happens on pilgrimage? You face the unknown. Every day brings new faces, unexpected weather, and physical fatigue. You shed old weight. The long walk strips away your worries and busy thoughts. You hum with anticipated change. Just like being in a doorway, you are taking the next step to become someone new by the end. It’s called transformation    What you can expect with Quarter Moon Story Arts.    Coming home. A chance to write a new story in a voice and words that are fully and finally your very own.  Home Page     Support. 30+ years of experienced storytelling guidance as you navigate your midlife pilgrimage story to who you want to become. About     Storytelling Doula. Not a coach but a collaborator and  witness to your journey who knows what it feels like when the road ahead opens up and how to get there. Meet Diane       Skills and Solutions. Community and individual opportunities to discover Who Am I? and Who Will I Become? What I Offer       Start here ---> 30-minute Discovery Call. I’m inviting you to discover the treasure trove that is your story as you navigate your midlife pilgrimage.  Contact Diane        And thank you for listening!  YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcasts —it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

        Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground!    They say that when Marco Polo returned from his decades of travels through Asia along the Silk Roads, he had gems sewn in his cloak to prove the fantastical nature of his stories.    Pilgrims who walked the Camino de Santiago brought back scallop shells they picked up on the beaches of Finisterre, Spain to prove that they had walked to the end of the earth. On the Camino the symbol of the scallop shell is used as a way marker. Like many Camino pilgrims I affixed a large scallop shell to my backpack as a reminder to keep me going until I reached Finisterre.         What did we bring home from our journeys? Where might we find the fantastical, the unexpected gift in our stories? What was the agent of change? How were we transformed?    And does any of it matter to someone else? I say, “Yes, it does and in ways we cannot calculate.”        “It’s strange to think that there might be things we know that people who live one hundred years from now would like to know. We forget to say them.” [William Stafford]    Whether we sew gems in our cloaks or tie scallop shells to our backpacks as proof of our walk, we also have the stories, the hidden treasures, the currency of hard travel and quiet transformation. Does transformation arrive for us as we walk? Some might experience that on the Way. Others experience their inner map evolving in the days and weeks and even years later.            Regardless of when change occurs, this much I know is true: The stories we bring back from our literal and figurative journeys are the gift of grace that we earned as we journeyed through our fears, doubts, and failures to finally arrive Here from There.      Story Prompt: What insight, glimpse of wisdom, shiver of compassion, or wee bit of knowledge have you earned as you walk the story of your life? Write that story and share it out loud.YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcasts —it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on SUBSTACK    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicENJOY MY WORK? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. 

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    I am thrilled to announce that Quarter Moon Story Arts is live to the world with a new website designed by women for women to know themselves and each other through their stories. But not just any story. This is the space for women who are curious about how to discover and navigate their midlife pilgrimage stories so that they don’t go unrecorded.      One who knew the radical power of discovering and revealing your personal narrative was Gloria Steinem. She left behind her final unedited public thoughts about the vital role of women sharing their stories, as follows:    “Hello, all you unique individuals out there. I’m so glad to be meeting you through the magic of the media. I wish I could meet each one of you in person, but in a way, this is what allows us now to see each other’s lives, to influence each other’s lives, to respect each other — and to, therefore, perpetuate what we hope is a global democracy.    “Please feel free to respond in any way you can, and please tell your own story. This is the most important thing we can do for each other—to know each other through stories. And I hope so much that whoever you are, listening right now, you are able to do what you love—[and] to be, also, the unique person you are.”    Midlife as sacred. How might you get to that place of what awaits you as the unique woman you are? By exploring your midlife transition as if you are on pilgrimage. Midlife is a sacred space of transition. A pilgrimage mirrors the sacred realm between leaving behind your normal and familiar life while you journey toward a destination where old rules fade and new truths can form.    Letting go. When you step out on pilgrimage, literally or figuratively, you leave home, walk away from your safe, known world and leave your daily routines behind. You have no fixed identity anymore. Your regular job, status, and titles do not matter on the path. While you walk the open road you exist in a temporary space where you only focus on the next step forward.    Transformation. What happens on pilgrimage? You face the unknown. Every day brings new faces, unexpected weather, and physical fatigue. You shed old weight. The long walk strips away your worries and busy thoughts. You hum with anticipated change. Just like being in a doorway, you are taking the next step to become someone new by the end. It’s called transformation    What you can expect with Quarter Moon Story Arts.    Coming home. A chance to write a new story in a voice and words that are fully and finally your very own.  Home Page     Support. 30+ years of experienced storytelling guidance as you navigate your midlife pilgrimage story to who you want to become. About     Storytelling Doula. Not a coach but a collaborator and  witness to your journey who knows what it feels like when the road ahead opens up and how to get there. Meet Diane       Skills and Solutions. Community and individual opportunities to discover Who Am I? and Who Will I Become? What I Offer       Start here ---> 30-minute Discovery Call. I’m inviting you to discover the treasure trove that is your story as you navigate your midlife pilgrimage.  Contact Diane        And thank you for listening!  YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcasts —it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground!    Walking through John Wayne Airport 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 understand what’s changed. 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, leads, and heals.    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 stories, they don't just change the room. They change what's possible.    Story Prompt: Your voice is ready. What will you say? Write that story and share it out loud!      Meanwhile, I’m building a community of storytelling by women for women focusing on navigating our midlife pilgrimage story. I’m hosting in-person courses on Whidbey Island while developing on-line courses and a special gathering through my Substack account. To learn more please subscribe on Substack or let’s have a Discovery Call. Click the LINK to make an appointment.    And, as always, thank you for listening!YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe on Apple podcasts & share this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    When I introduced my friend, Eliza Young (the genius behind my Quarter Moon Story Arts logo and new website) and the author of Life in Captivity to my colleague Dave Roberts of The Teaching Journeys podcast, it was simpatico!    From the September 1st 2026 Episode Notes: “What happens when a child survives vitamin A toxicity, 20 plus surgeries, parental kidnapping, and a front-row seat to 9/11—and still builds a captivating life?    In this powerful episode of The Teaching Journeys Podcast, host Dave Roberts sits down with author and resilience advocate Eliza Young to unpack one of the most extraordinary life journeys you'll ever hear.    Eliza shares how she became the first diagnosed case of vitamin A toxicity—a medical mystery that left her physically handicapped and led to over 20 surgeries before her 18th  birthday. She opens up about surviving her parents' brutal custody battle, including multiple parental kidnappings, and being just one mile from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.    Now, nearly 60 years old, Eliza is writing her next chapter—literally and figuratively.    But this isn't just a story of survival. It's a story of transformation.    Whether you're a trauma survivor, a caregiver, a parent, or simply someone searching for proof that it's never too late to create the life you've always wanted, Eliza's story will move and inspire you.”Click this LINK to access the episode on YouTube Click this LINK to access the episode on Apple podcasts   Click this LINK to access the episode on SpotifyClick this LINK to get a copy of Eliza's book now ready for pre-order!   Connect with Eliza Young:Website: https://substack.com/@captivatingelizaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCodDmXVVWdOCGrePbSevQDw  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/creativeliza  Book: www.alifeincaptivity.comConnect with Dave RobertsWebsite: [email protected]: 315-269-4522The Teaching Journeys Podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/theteachingjourneys/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdM4kKxk2_nHZAAuGtEYvdtCPsmaoVvu_ YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe on Apple podcasts & share this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga. What Women Still Fight For. We women have to fight for so much: being seen, heard, understood, listened to, recognized, and acknowledged. Despite progress, we are still taking a stand to transform women’s rights, to overcome barriers to the freedom of voice, opinions, and expression. Little Human to Big Human. Maybe like me you wonder if there was a thru-line of advocacy between who you were as a Little Human Girl and who you are today as a Big Human Woman. What if the courage to speak up, to speak out, to say what you mean and mean what you say was always there? What It Takes. Maybe it’s a matter of time, confronting your story, upending your upbringing, and challenging yourself to be a testament to truth. Or a situation that demands a response. Women whose pioneering work laid a foundation for future feminist thought, greater autonomy and independence shared a commitment: I may be one among many but I can draw many to me like fillings to a magnet and together we will do the work that’s calling to be done. Click HERE for 36 examples of women who took a stand  Devil Within. I was a strong-willed handful as a child.  Today we might say I was spirited; but back then I was told “A dimple in the chin means a devil within.” I still have a dimple in my chin. That never left me. What I had to unlearn was a voice that society, religion, patriarchy, and education quieted down. Who am I? The courage to be one’s self begins with digging down into the soil of that self. Who am I? What treasure trove of skills, experiences, wisdom, and more can I uncover? And when I uncover the story of myself how do I bestow permission on me to be that self? For a long overdue lesson in courage I turned to Virginia Woolf who knows well the “supreme difficulty of being oneself.”   "Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotch-potch of impulses, our perpetual miracle — for the soul throws up wonders every second. Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death: let us say what comes into our heads, repeat ourselves, contradict ourselves, fling out the wildest nonsense, and follow the most fantastic fancies without caring what the world does or thinks or says. For nothing matters except life.” ~ Virginia Woolf  Story Prompt: Turn back the pages of time, find that chapter when you were bright and shining, alive and curious, energetic, perceptive, or outspoken. Who is the Little Human Girl that used to be you? Where is she now? Write that story and share it out loud! Thank you for listening. I’m glad to have you here.   You’re invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, Subscribe & Spread this episode with a generous 5-star review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time! AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack while I renovate that site, too. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. El Toro Sailing. My US Navy pediatric nurse off-duty days were spent sailing a tiny boat in the shipping channel off the Port of Norfolk. Believe it or not I sailed an 8x4 foot single-masted, centerboard El Toro that flew across the water. An old skipper powered a battered motor boat across the waves, curling around my boat with a great rooster tail spraying, and hurled a white styrofoam block wrapped with an old rope. It landed right in my lap. The block had been hollowed out to fit 2 cold cans of beer. That was a good day! Bad days. But when the days weren’t so good, when I had more downs than ups, kids got worse, some died, moms needed comforting and support when dads were away at sea, self-doubts about working pediatrics crowded my thoughts, or a well-deserved leave was cancelled, I had to learn to “hold fast.” Hold Fast at Sea. For centuries sailing was a dangerous profession, and ships were often caught in storms or rough seas. “Hold fast!” commanded sailors to secure equipment, and ropes or lines to prevent accidents or maintain safety and stability on ships especially during turbulent weather conditions. Sailors would shout “hold fast!” to each other when they needed to grab onto something firmly so that they wouldn’t get thrown off balance by the towering waves. Sailors learned quickly that “hold fast” means to maintain a firm grip on something despite external forces trying to pull it away. It could come down to saving a life or “man overboard” at a time when few boys and men knew how to swim. Hold Fast Today. Over time, “hold fast” came to mean strength, perseverance and determination in facing adversity when challenges threatened to unmoor your own stability. While the old nautical term and the present day variation have distinct meanings, they share a common thread: steadfastness. Whether you’re holding onto a rope during rough seas or standing up for what you believe in, “hold fast” requires unwavering commitment and resilience. The Future Will Prevail. The unprecedented conditions we find ourselves in today demand a grounded personal presence of internal strength and determination, maintaining one’s grip on values, kindness, empathy, and holding on to hope. The worn out, deteriorated, broken-down, and decaying patriarchy is railing against the future. The future will prevail. We must hold fast so that it arrives. Hold fast with all the resilience you can muster even when you feel you cannot hold fast a moment longer. That is the place the tide will turn.   CTA: What if we hold fast and we get things right? Check out World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Vision for 2030 to give yourself a bit more hope: Thank you for listening. I’m glad you’re here.   You’re invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, Subscribe & Spread this episode with a generous 5-star review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time! AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, email me [[email protected]] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack while I renovate that site, too. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.