Stories of Our Lives goes online!

Stories of Our Lives goes online!

Stories of our Lives facilitator Jolene writes:  Changing times have called for changing methods of communication and so the storytelling group has started to experiment with meeting up online!  

Our first session in March was very much a trial and error process, with lots of laughing at ourselves and tips shared on how to work the technology.  All of us were learning alongside each other and supporting each other as we went on how to use this video conferring site Zoom.  We all agreed that it seemed a bit strange and futuristic at first but with practice ended up being simpler to use than we first thought. 

Our second session on April 4^th was much smoother and we actually managed to have a very productive session.  A group of 7 of us met at 10am and began with a friendly chat and then a guided breathing activity to get everyone settled.  Then we reflected on the questions “What echoes, parallels and memories of the past is the current situation bringing back for you?  And how is the past helping you make sense of what is happening now?”

Everyone was paired off into “breakout rooms” (where 2 participants could only hear each other speak) for 15 minutes to share a chat and their reflections on the above questions.  Then all rejoined the main room and took turns to give feedback what came up for them in discussion.  We were able to finish the whole thing within an hour and it was amazing to hear how many interesting memories had emerged in such a short amount of time!  Lots of parallels, both personal and collective were revealed, wisdom shared and gratitude expressed.  I will be collating together the writing produced during these conversations and putting them together for Helen to send out to you, in the next newsletter , so watch this space.

Some thoughts on the session were as follows:

“Very uplifting and connecting”

 “wonderful conversations inspired”

“made me realise how much we have got to learn from each other.”

“This could be a chance to give hope to people about how we have got through hard things in the past.”

“Conversations between young and old, exchanging perspectives is very helpful”

“Makes me realise how much we have to be grateful for”. “I really enjoyed it. Being forced to embrace both new technology and social media during the lockdown may not be a bad thing!”

If you are interested in getting involved in this new evolving project, please get in touch with Helen to learn more.  We want to offer a few options so everyone who wants to can get involved.

• Join the Zoom call sessions to chat about the topic of the month (you can write up your thoughts yourself or a listener will do this).
• Wait for the write up of what we discussed to come through your door and then note down your thoughts and recollections about it for us.  We can include your memories then in future discussions and write ups.
• As above but also contact Helen for her to arrange for you to have an enjoyable phone chat with a volunteer to talk about your memories on this topic.