Wayfinding on The Mountain

I just received this letter from a woman who attended my programs at The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands, NC, last week.

It is sometimes difficult to explain what I do to people and why I think storytelling matters. I call my business A Telling Experience, and my catch-phrase is "finding ourselves together telling stories." That has multiple meanings for me, but most important is the wayfinding we do when we converse and share stories. Every now and then someone gets it and articulates the experience in a lovely way.

Janese's letter validates the role storytelling plays in our Mountain programming.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Janese Nix <janese.nix@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 4:12 PM
Subject: Thank you
To: david@david-novak.com

David,

I was fortunate enough to meet you and experience your art last week at the Mountain Center.  I am aware of many of the ways listening and sharing stories can transform and am grateful for the reminder and opportunity to think again about the power of stories.  But I also want to express gratitude to you for sharing your "aliveness."  When you tell stories you are sharing and passing along the stories themselves but you are also inviting attention.  It's like seeing the first rays of the rising sun and noticing that beauty.  In that moment there is no distraction, no mind chatter or worries, simply life.  When you are story telling, you become the wind moving through the trees, and invite your audience to be captivated, to attend fully.  You energize your audience by awakening their attention.  A gift I'm glad to have received. 

Listening to you talk afterward, I felt like you are a wayfinder, someone who inspires cultural change through your authenticity and by being deeply connected with your inner voice.  Another gift, thank you.

Janese Nix