The Writing Life
Odyssey Storytelling- Arms and Legs
ODYSSEY STORYTELLING
What you need to know about being a storyteller
Thursday Sept 7, 2023
Theme: Arms & Legs with Mary Jo Pollack, curator
Building community one story at a time!
Local Tucsonans each tell a true 10-12 minute story relating to the theme. “Arms and Legs” certainly can have some interesting perspectives. No notes, no fiction. Just telling your story. It’s fun, interesting, serious, thought-provoking.
I’ll be a teller at this one. Maybe you’ll be a teller too!
Send a pitch to Mary Jo. emmer425@yahoo.com
What you need to know about listening
Not telling? Come and listen!
The Screening Room: 127 E Congress St. 85701. Doors open 6:30pm, stories begin at 7pm. Click the event link at bottom for all details.
*Downtown parking **Safety: Vaccination not required. Masks encouraged.
HOW MUCH: $15.00. Patreon members- Your current membership gets you in free; please make sure to notify us if you are attending. Of course, donations are accepted.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
The Odyssey Storytelling DNA Podcast is Up!!
ODYSSEY STORYTELLING PODCAST- DNA
It’s up! The June 1 Odyssey Storytelling podcast of DNA is here! This was my first return to live on-stage storytelling since 2021.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
What’s in your DNA? Ancestral traits of heroism, artistry, and brilliance … or ancient tales of intrigue and skullduggery? What do you know about the secrets encoded in your chromosomes? On June 1, 2023, five storytellers told true tales about the embedded human software that can enhance or disrupt your sense of who you are and where you’re headed.
The storytellers include:
Ethel Lee-Miller
Dr. Rosalyn Dischiavo
Tim Bentley
Belle Fitz-Simmons
Tez Haag
Curated by Jan Stapleman
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
Odyssey Storytelling- a June success and July invite
June Post Script
If you like storytelling: Odyssey Storytelling Presents: DNA. Curated and Produced by: Jan Stapleman and Martin Dooley
Associate Producer: Roscoe Mutz and Ana Montanez
Location: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress St., Tucson, AZ 85701
Admission is $15.00. (Read on for July info)
Not sure if I was ready, but when Jan Stapleman contacted me with the hook of “You just might have a DNA story,” I knew I WAS ready. My goal had been to be back onstage live by the two-year recovery date (August 25) from my stroke (August 25, 2021). I did it! Jan created posters for each of the storytellers for the show. She is a super organizer and emcee- making us all feel like stars!
AND THE JULY INVITE
Odyssey is on stage live every first Thursday at The Screening Room. 7 PM. Doors open 6:30 PM. $15.00. July 6 is a spontaneous storytelling event. Names in a hat, tellers chosen to tell a true story abut FREEDOM! Come to the Screening Room. See you there!
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
All Because of Summer
Summer Then
How is it that in my 76th year, I continue to look forward to the first day of summer just as I did when I was a child? Back then, I couldn’t contain the anticipated happiness and feeling of freedom that came in the package that was summer.
School was out! My family made our annual summer trip to the North Shore of Long Island, New York and our summer-long vacation in a country town called Miller Place. Such wonderful memories – days at the beach, swimming, exploring, climbing trees, picking raspberries.
A Book From Summer Memories
When I was teaching, I often told some of these memories as stories to my second graders and eventually wrote my first book, Thinking of Miller Place: A Memoir of Summer Comfort.
Summer Now
I now live in Tucson Arizona where conversations about heat hold increasingly more importance as summer arrives.
“Our thermometer read 101° yesterday.”
“My phone app says get ready for 103° high tomorrow.”
It’s a weird Can you top this? kind of vibe. Today on June 27 our high will be 105° by 2:00 PM. Too hot to go out. Walkers get up and out earlier and earlier to “beat the heat.” Dogs do that stiff-legged stance and rebel when the front door is opened for a walk and heat swoops in. Outside or A/C inside? It’s a no-brainer.
Sharing Memories Builds Connections
I believe that sharing good memories makes them stronger. Storytelling events are on the rise along with the temps. I’m sure my happy endorphins are boosted with each telling of a sweet memory. And so, some time between May 21 and the first day of summer I take my book off the shelf, curl up on the comfy chair, reread Thinking of Miller Place, and want to share it again.
A Happy Surprise
I recently got a happy surprise from a woman on the East Coast – 2500 miles away. I knew her over 50 years ago. Not as a childhood schoolmate or college friend. She was one of my first students when I taught kindergarten at Washington School in West Caldwell, New Jersey. Now our similar memories connect us again.
I am so pleased to share some excerpts she wrote:
I thoroughly enjoyed your memoir of Miller Place! … You helped conjured up memories of family camping trips and time spent at our summer homes on Martha’s Vineyard. We had so much fun making new friends, and being left to our own devices.
Your description of the car ride to Miller Place was so similar to our treks to The Vineyard. Our station wagon was filled to the gills with luggage, household items, a half dozen children and a pair of Airedale Terriers.
I particularly enjoyed reading about your interpersonal relationships with family (especially your Finn), friends and the community. It’s interesting the way we perceive ourselves and others, and how our perceptions continually evolve through education and life experiences.
Thank you again! I and so many others are fortunate to have had you as our first school teacher!
Carol Ann Cielecki
“This reminds me of…” is one of the most valued compliments I can receive about my writing. Storytelling IS a wonderful connector. Thank you, Carol Ann, for this connection and your permission to share some excerpts. I can’t deny how pleased I am that our first personal connection is now strengthened by this one.
Do you have a childhood “Miller Place”? Tell me about it.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
Tucson Summer
Oh, the summer night has a smile of light, And she sits on a sapphire throne. ~Barry Cornwall
If you live in the Sonoran Desert as I do, summer nights are a respite from the heat of Tucson days.
Waking up to the morning’s brilliant sunshine blue skies and a light breeze, it’s easy to think, “Ah, to get outside.” But it’s best done before 9 AM.
But it’s a dry heat- Sonoran Desert ~ mantra/rationalization
There’s a certain amount of comfort in our ruefully stated weather fact. The humidity is low- think 13%. We may overdose on Refresh eyedrops and keep the sunhat companies in the profit column. But I don’t miss the instant moistness that can coat your skin with the humidity of my native state of New York. My hair does not fall flat nor curl up in the humidity. And we can escape up to Mt. Lemmon.
Temps here have been in the triple digits since June 17th. July promises to carry on this hot pattern. Leaving the house checklist: car keys, ID, phone, $ of some kind, WATER bottle, sun hat, mask (just in case). Check again for water bottle. The errand loop, walk, or posting the mail gets done before 10 AM at the latest.
Summer afternoon, summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~ Henry James
The scorcher days bring a certain laziness and respite from “stuff that has to get done.” I stay inside. Hours can go by when I craft SoulCollage cards or my greeting cards. Everyone gets a handmade card sent with love and slightly crooked alignment of parts which I am adopting as my trademark.
The books on my reading table get switched out frequently. Sun-made tea is my outdoor hobby. Other people garden – I fill a 3-quart glass bottle with filtered water, pop-in 3 teabags and set it out on the back patio. This week’s favorite: Peach with Turmeric. Bring the bottle inside in the afternoon, pour a tall glass, add ice, maybe a bit of lime juice and go to the reading chair.
Yes, in summer we all live in the dreamy palace. ~Mary Oliver
Make your summer dream come true.
If a summer night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. (revised a bit) ~Bern Williams
Muse on that one.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
The “Business” of Writing
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT MY “BUSINESS” RESISTANCE
THIS WORKS FOR ME
GO FOR IT!
The other day my daily thought from The Universe Talks (TUT) ( ask me about that sometime) suggested:
It doesn’t take much, Ethel, to surround yourself with good friends, good times, and big bucks. (I added a good load of “knowing it’s going to happen.”) In fact, it doesn’t take anything at all. Visualize. For added effect, affirm. And to really spice things up, enjoy the wait…(Aha! Because it will happen!)
…Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.- ~ Mark Twainor dive into the next research or writing brainstorm.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
Odyssey Storytelling -July 6
ODYSSEY STORYTELLING:
Building Community One Story at a Time
Live! Public Here’s a chance to tell a true story. This month we’re doing a spontaneous story slam. That is–open mic storytelling with stories on the theme of: Freedom. Prepare a five-minute true story
COME or Tell or Listen
WHERE: The Screening Room
127 Congress St Tucson AZ. Downtown parking
WHEN: Thursday July 6th
Doors open at 6:30pm. Stories begin at 7pm. $15 at the door or tix online
Beer, wine & snacks available
Vaccination not required. Event will be indoors. Masks welcome.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
Happy Father’s Day
“It doesn’t matter who my father was. It matters who I remember he was.” Anne Sexton.
My Dad was an extraordinary ordinary man. Father to three daughters, husband to my also extraordinary Mom, kind and cheerful grandfather. He did all those expected things of dads in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He also danced with my mom in the kitchen, danced with us at square dances, whistled a lot, sang songs, and was a father/mentor to many people young and old later in life- perhaps always. If you knew him or met him, you know what I mean.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad.
Happy Father’s Day to all those who do the expected and joyfully unexpected “dad things” for their children and others.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
D-Day- Long ago, and as near as the next heartbeat
Arizona morning
D-Day 2023- Tucson
On Tuesday June 6, 2023 6:30 AM in Tucson Arizona, I stood by our patio window, coffee mug in hand, thinking of the day ahead of me. There is a whole chorus of birds that sing early in the morning from about 5:45 till about 8:30. It’s an orchestra of cheerful sounds: chirping, tweeting, trilling, twittering, and a background of cooing. I can’t help but smile.
Tuesday’s my writing day. Our Eastside Writing group meets on Zoom to share our intention for daily writing. We are quite an eclectic group. Today there are five of us. Our North Carolina writer is doing a family history and has taken over her whole basement as her writing headquarters. Our Colorado author is writing another novel set in Hawaii. A good locale for her since she spent many years living and working there. Our Maine scribe is a poet, has finished her 5-book mystery series, and is a tech expert. Her poetry is lovely. Her mysteries are interesting and entertaining, but she rises to an exhaulted position in my eyes because she writes, edits, formats, and uploads her work -on her own- on Amazon. A Tucson colleague is finishing up a bio for a new position, along with completing an assignment from last week that got her sidetracked, but in a humorous way. I’m looking forward to the results on that. My intention is to do two blurbs/blogs for my local Center for Spiritual Living- about our lending library, and bookstore. Should be easy. I love books. I’ve been organizing the close to 800 books in the library, and choosing display books from the bookstore.
Okay. Begin. June 6, 2023… And my mental history file opens.
June 6. D-Day
My trip to the Normandy beaches in 2014 with my husband was a huge contrast to the earlier peaceful stance by my patio. We walked on the wide beaches. Stop and stare out at the water. Our group walks along paths that lead to German bunkers. I take photos and more photos. Many of us in our group capture the beauty of the yellow flowers blossoming all across the field down to the blue, blue water beyond the beach. There is an involuntary gasp when our guide says, “Imagine this covered in blood in 1944.”
I abandon my book blog.
PBS NEWS June 6 2023. 730
“On Tuesday, the whistling sound of the wind accompanied many re-enactors who came to Omaha Beach at dawn to mark the 79th anniversary of the assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control. Some brought bunches of flowers; others waved American flags.” Click on PBS above for the full story.
June 6 1944. 630
The D-Day Story. It might have been like this:Young soldiers sit in landing craft as they head in to the beach. Most are facing toward their destination. Old archived films I’ve seen showed young, so very young men, some smoking, serious faces. One soldier pats the helmet of the guy in front of him as they line up to get off. Another pats the shoulder of the guy in front of him. I see a wedding ring on his left hand. My heart is racing. Jumping, some ended their military duty in the water; some only lose boots, or a helmet, or gun. They dodge machine gunfire, mortars, and mines to get to the beaches. My stomach tightens into a knot.
I look at other websites. Today’s story in the Long Island Herald about Joseph Argenzio, Jr., the youngest soldier at D-Day, is gripping. Youngest Soldier at D-Day- a Long Island Resident
Bringing It Home
I feel gratitude and anxiety (a crazy mix for what I am feeling) that men, women, families sacrificed lives for our safety. I am angry that this “sacrifce” still goes on. I remind myself to connect with everyone I see, meet, talk with, think of. To be curious about ways we may be different and connect with ways we are the same. Maybe a smile. A nod hello. Breathing.
In the quiet of my patio I sit. May I be free from suffering. May I be well. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be happy.
Someone passes by out on the path. I send this to him: May you be free from suffering. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy.
And to you. May you be free from suffering. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
June 1- Odyssey Storytelling- DNA
Odyssey Storytelling: DNA June 1
Odyssey Storytelling. Hosts: Jan Stapleman and Martin Dooley
The News:
5 storytellers share true stories about DNA. Family traits. Geographical Clustering. Nature or Nurture.
And this month I’m one of the tellers! At last -back on the stage-live.
The Details:
Doors open at 6:30pm; Stories begin at 7pm
Downtown parking
Beer & wine & snacks available
Vaccination not required. Event will be indoors. Masks welcome.
Email stories@odysseystorytelling.com if you’d like to tell your own story on stage. You can also put your name in the hat for one of 3 slots during intermission.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
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