60 Seconds for Story Prompt Friday: How & to Whom Are Our Stories of Use?

Hello to you listening in Mohali, Punjab, India! 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. My friend Gene was mulling whether stuff he knows should be passed on in stories to his grandchildren. Nah. The best way for children to learn is to experience the ups and downs of Life themselves. So, no shared stories. I see it differently: You are not now nor will you ever be the only person who wonders if their experiences, trials, tribulations, mistakes, misgivings, victories, and so on are of use to someone else. Here me when I say, stories are the best teachers. I craft these episodes in the hope that someone needs and wants them, will be helped by them, maybe even have a better life because something I said answered the question: “What! You, too? I thought I was the only one!” [C.S. Lewis] People are people; they will still touch fire to see if it’s hot. Our stories might just keep them from being burned alive. Story Prompt: When have you shared a Life experience of yours in a story that helped another person? How do you know? 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, 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 Leeds, Yorkshire, UK! 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. Once upon a time the wise fool and teacher Nasruddin Hodja was asked: Master, what’s the secret to happiness? Nasruddin replied, The secret to happiness is good judgment. Yes, Master, but how do we get good judgment? Nasruddin replied, Good judgment comes from experience. Yes, Master, but how do we get experience? Ah well, replied Nasruddin, that would come from bad judgment. Growing up I had to do it my way! No matter who told me, No! I was determined to find out for myself. I touched fire to see if it was hot. Rode my two-wheeler bike down the steepest hill in town, no hands. No matter how much my intuition said, “When in doubt, don’t!” I did. Over time I learned that fire is hot, they do cut off your favorite shirt in the emergency room, and my intuition demands respect.   But, what if my bad judgment was the experience I needed to acquire the secret? What secret? Maybe not happiness but surely adventure! Question: What good secrets have your bad judgments taught 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, 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 Da Nang, Vietnam!   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 a storyteller I know that conflict is the driving force of any story. No conflict - no story. A character can struggle externally with outside forces like a person or situation as well as internally against fears, doubts and flaws in her own mind. While conflict feels miserable resolving the conflict often dictates how the character grows when she figures a way out of the hole she’s in.   Once, when I was feeling hopeless and couldn’t see a way out my neighbor Fred showed me an illustration, a sketch of a man dressed in a business suit carrying a briefcase and trapped in a swirling blizzard of sheets of paper. You’re here, he said, pointing to the man, feeling caught in a tempest, seeing no way out. Think of each sheet of paper as an option. Choose one. It doesn’t matter which you choose. What matters is that you choose. Choosing will calm the chaos you feel and begin to reveal choices. And then what? I asked. Focus on that one choice. Make a decision. Feel the shift in your situation. You’ve done something. Gained a bit of control. Now, choose another. Focus. Gain control. Do it again and again until you see your way clear. It works. I promise.   I’m here to say that all these years later Fred is still right. Give it a go! Then you’ll know. 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, 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 Guadalupe, Mexico! 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. The Camino de Santiago de Compostella is fairly well marked with yellow arrows painted by volunteers and images of scallop shells pointing the way west. But every once in a while - like life - the way is unclear, unmarked, hidden even. You can get lost. I learned this the hard way. Now what? You must stop and listen to your own knowing. Silence the noise, the fearful chatter, the doubtful distractions about which way to go, what to do next. Your own knowing will help you out when you ask. And time. And your experience. Stand still. Be quiet. Listen. Choose your way. Walk on. Story Prompt: When have you walked your way from lost into the clear? 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, 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 Canberra, Australia! 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. Here on Whidbey Island our Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Stewardship is home to prairie, savanna and forest with over 50 species of rare native grasses and flowers including camas. Native across the Pacific Northwest, the stunning violet-blue flowers of camas historically lit up prairies, marshes, and oak savannahs. Camas once dominated open clearings carefully tended by First Nations people to maintain optimal growing conditions. Camas bulbs were dug in the fall and pit roasted to release simple sweet caramelized sugars, providing a staple food for thousands of years. In the early spring there are no camas flowers to be seen. Do the camas exist? Indeed they do but they have not yet manifested. The bulbs are lying in wait for the right blend of sun and warmth and rain to bloom. Practical Tip: We tend to think in terms of something existing or not existing; but that is not reality. When we pay careful attention we discover that what we’re waiting for is there, hidden, for when the time is right to manifest. And it will because what we’re waiting for is waiting for us. Guaranteed!  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, 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 Savannah, Georgia! 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. What is apparition? In the Harry Potter universe of witches and wizards apparition is the ability to teleport, magically transport from one place to another. One minute you are here and the next you are there! Like mmmagic. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling  No one in the real world has this talent; but we can learn from the wizarding world how apparition might motivate our Monday in 3 easy steps, in sequence:   1. Destination: See clearly where you want to go and fix your mind firmly on that place. 2. Determination: Focus your mind on where you are yearning to go. 3. Deliberation: Feeling your way into nothingness, turn and move with Deliberation. And there you are! Arrived! Have a most magical motivated Monday!  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, 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 Lanús, Argentina! 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. In my mind’s eye I see that child on the Jersey Shore  arms spread wide clasping the inflated beach ball to her chest, fingers stretched and gripping, eyes barely peeking over the top. Along comes mom with a triple-decker ice cream cone - 3 scoops - all chocolate. The child wants both: beach ball and ice cream; but can hold only one. Now what? After tears, frustration, stomping around something or someone wins out. Who do you recognize here? Because no matter how old we become some things never change: we want both but have to choose one. The choices we make can become our greatest adventures if we’re bold. When we let go of what we’re desperately clinging to we might very well end up with the biggest prize of all: the one true life that is meant for us. Story Prompt: Find a memory moment when you were presented with a choice, maybe like the beach ball and ice cream cone. You wanted both; but could have only one. Which did you choose and how come? 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 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 Desert Hot Springs, California! 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. Recently a friend told me how she felt like a failure because the job she had she didn’t want and the job she wanted she didn’t get. Now what?   What if we choose to look at the lost job opportunity as an experiment that didn’t produce the expected results.  Does that mean it failed? No. What if we look at the result as information pointing you in a better direction. Dr. Jonas Salk once said, “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, because learning what doesn't work is a necessary step to learning what does.” Or, as the famous American jazz musician Louis Armstrong said, “It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.”   Practical Tip: Think of a time when you believed you had failed but with a little persistence turned the result into an unexpected opportunity. How did you do it? I believe it’s because you’ve got what it takes to experiment! 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 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 Chandigarh, India! 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 every once in a while you are most fortunate to sit down with a wonderful person and share a conversation as if you’ve known each other a very long time. Dr. Summer Watson of KORE Women is such a person. Recently Summer invited me to join her on her KORE Women podcast show to talk about diverse life journeys, what we’ve learned along the way, and how we could not have imagined our lives turning out so well. Click the LINKS in the Episode Notes to go directly to our 20 minute chat on Apple  OR  YouTube  And, please take a few moments to check out all the links in Episode Notes to learn more about Dr. Summer Watson, KORE Women,  the KORE Women podcast available on your favorite platform , and become a part of the KORE Women experience on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.   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 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 Rabat, Capital of Morocco! 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. As the story goes I refused to transition from toddler diapers to toddler big girl pull ups the traditional way. No matter what they promised I was not going to sit on the Little Human pot. I wanted to sit on the Big Human’s porcelain throne.  Maybe my mother saw genius in my independence or maybe she was just harried with more babies coming along behind me every 18 months or so. She gave in. I did potty training my way. But doing it “my way” didn’t happen nearly as often as the story seems to foretell. That little girl’s voice got shut down and ignored in the din of other voices, voices of authority, duty, church, obligation, and responsibility. And yet, her voice wasn’t gone; it was just gone missing. In time she went looking for it. Named it and claimed it as her own voice. Now she helps professional women change their narrative so they are seen, heard, understood, and listened to. Story Prompt: Somewhere in the long ago you realized that there is no other voice like yours. When did you choose to use it? How did you decide to do it your way, with your voice. Write that story and share it out loud!     You’re always invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, would you subscribe, share a 5-star rating + nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, and join us next time! Meanwhile, stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website to: ✓ Arrange a no-obligation Discovery Chat, ✓ Stay current with Diane 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.