Description

The courage to speak
The wisdom to write
The power to change

Story is the heart of language. Story emotionally moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond the borders of our individuality to imagine realities of other people, times, and places; to empathise with other beings; to extend our supposing into the universe. Storytelling - both oral tradition and written word - is the foundation of being human.

In her powerful new book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground for each other's stories. Through story and example, Baldwin presents storytelling as an innate skill we can remember and practice. She shows the power of story to connect life experiences so that we can share them, learn from them, and teach each other through the medium of a good tale.

Each chapter in Storycatcher is carried by a fascinating tale - about people, family, or community - intertwined with practical instructions about the nature of story, how it works, and how we can practice it in our lives. The art of storycatching invites us to spend time speaking and listening, writing and reading, reclaiming the meaning missing from our lives. This book passionately calls for humanity to hang on to its voice, its love of reading and writing, and its understanding that story is our soul. 

Whether exploring the personal stories revealed in our private journals, the stories revealed in our private journals, the sotries of family legacy, the underlying stories that drive our organisations, or the stories that define our broadest definitions of identiy, Christina encourages us to all to become storycatchers - people who value story and find ways in the midst of everday life to practice storytelling. Baldwin shows us how new stories lay the framework for a new world.

About the Author

Christina Baldwin has taught seminars internationally for over thirty years and has contributed two classic books to the field of personal writing, One to One: Self Understanding through Journal Writing and Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest. She is also the author of Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture and The Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These.