Story telling

It will soon be a year since I began writing stories from Sand Creek. I don’t think I have set the blogosphere on fire with my wit, veracity for writing or groundbreaking insights. I hope I have succeeded in at least one way, though — telling a good story. Eugene Cameron, a Ponca Indian story teller, reminded me that a story is told so that it will be shared. One story teller begets another. So, tell me how I’ve done. Have my stories been good enough to share?

Time Management (or the lack thereof)

 

(Guest blog post on www.lifemeetswork.com)

A funny thing happened on the way to my home office. Actually, it’s not all that funny. I’ve lost my knack for time management. Here’s why.

Read more here:  http://www.lifemeetswork.com/blog/blogdetail.asp?sectionID=3&articleID=150

Job title dilemma

(Guest blog post on www.lifemeetswork.com.)

I have lived the “life meets work” philosophy for almost 20 years now. It’s not because I discovered the trend early. I simply married into a farm family. Even in today’s world, farm families have an uncanny approach to integrating work and life. Case in point: New tractors still come with a “companion seat” option, for kids to ride along.

Lately, though, I struggle for an answer when a professional acquaintance asks me what I do. Read more here: http://www.lifemeetswork.com/blog/blogdetail.asp?sectionID=3&articleID=128.

Twitter for research

I wanted to pass along this great article on harnessing the information on Twitter, 50 useful Twitter tools for writers and researchers.  It breaks down how to gain solid information based on geographic location, topic, keywords — even through a Twitter yellow pages. By the way, I believe Barack Obama sent his first tweet on May 1 regarding the swine flu. Follow him: @whitehouse.

Also found this Mashable article useful regarding integrating social media and developing a social media start page, 7 Ways to Create Your Own Social Start Page.  I started with Twhirl and am now using Tweetdeck. I think using a Twitter application on Facebook might be the way to go. Time management is the biggest challenge.

If you’d like, follow me @lynnwoolf.

Trees for Life

Certain people stand apart from the rest. Balbir Mathur is one of those people. He’s the founder of the international nonprofit Trees for Life. Here’s just a glimpse into what they do: This year alone, the group gathered 50,000 books for children in Liberia; is helping set up 200 libraries in Nicaragua; and has developed a training video on reading storybooks to children for international distribution. They have been truly changing the world for more than 25 years.

When we first met, I congratulated Balbir on the group’s “accomplishments.” He responded by saying, “If you give a flower to a beloved, is that an accomplishment? This is how I worship.”

I worked hard throughout our conversation — not always successfully — to nix words like “projects,” “awareness,” “successes,” etc. It wasn’t easy and he was very patient with me as I tried to understand his approach. He describes Trees for Life as a  people-to-people movement that is helping empower and transform people’s lives worldwide while caring for our Earth.

Way beyond the donation mentality.

I left feeling very welcomed into his “tree family,” as he says. Most importantly, I felt empowered myself to help contribute toward long-lasting transformations.

Aunt Gladys

I have thought of Aunt Gladys so many times over the years. I was introduced to her — a character in Philip Roth’s short story Goodbye, Columbus — back in college. She is a minor character, but is so well-defined, that she has always been one of my favorites. This excerpt about her dinnertime routine of serving each family member separately says it all:

“Aunt Gladys, suppose tonight we all eat together. It’s hot, it’ll be easier for you.”

“Sure, I should serve four different meals at once. You eat pot roast, Susan with the cottage cheese, Max has steak. Friday night is his steak night, I wouldn’t deny him. And I’m having a little cold chicken. I should jump up and down twenty different times? What am I, a workhorse?”

Aunt Gladys (Roth) plays (writes) the proverbial martyr perfectly. Or, is she a control freak? Whatever her reasons, I think she’s perfect. I can’t tell you how many times I have thought about her — definitely every time I jump up from a meal to fetch something. I yearn for more of Aunt Gladys’s quirky matronly wisdom. Wonder what she would have to say about ready-made frosting or chicken nuggets or Tide with bleach or plug-in air fresheners …