Story Tellers

What I love the most about growing old and being more matured is hearing all those amazing stories from people. I increasingly meet more interesting people as years pass by, and I am now old enough to appreciate and resonate with those stories. And that's why I love traveling so much, too.
(My nailist in Chicago was originally from Jamaica 30 years ago, loves the town, nature, and has 3 dogs, can't stand the humidity of her hometown anymore. You know, I love to hear these tidbits of people.)

We all have great stories or two, either the ones of own or the ones that someone has told you. We are all great story tellers. I wish someday I can write a book or something on those amazing stories.

At Squam, you meet so many wonderful souls, wonderful storytellers. Every evening, we sat around the fireplace (and it was so chilly that we needed the fire, too) and talked endlessly until we grew too tired to talk. This year I was lucky to have 7 cabin mates, all of them so so gorgeous. Many of them have their own business, have many kids or finished raising them, have tough issues or two but are optimistic and strong. They gather at Squam to meet the equally creative souls, so that they can go back to their lives with energy to fight those battles. Creative, in this case, does not only mean artistic, but also mean being resourceful and imaginative in many aspect of our lives.

One of them used to be a newspaper photographer and drove around LA in the middle of the night, the other a winery owner which she has built from scratch, an artist and single mom who creates artwork that makes everyone happy, an opera singer with such a gentle heart, a mom with small children who is just discovering her artistic talent, an ER pediatrician .... The list go on forever, because I met 160 people at the workshop this year. I wish I could have talked each one of them and listen to their stories.

Patricia, I hope you wouldn't mind me writing about your rollerblade story.

The florist she used to work for was owned by two gay men, happily being together for 30(?) years. They have met in Chicago, when the pope was in town. One of them was preparing for the visit and decorating a place with flowers. The other guy literally bumped into him rollerblading. They fell in love, right there. Like a fairytale! Can that kind of story be real?

Listening to the story, a few of us determined to get pairs of rollerblades for ourselves and go out to parks. We just have to be very careful who we bump into, you know.

I don't know, I feel that my family has always been full of stories. I grew up in that kind of environment. My mom always tells us stories of her childhood and many even older ones. My dad has bucketful of adventures himself. My family turned me into a sucker for great life stories.

Compared to that, I feel that guys I work with are rather on the boring side. They read business books, economic papers, spend most of their lives in the small offices, all they talk about are either work or kids (and not their wives, which is even more boring). Is that because 95% of them are guys? That makes me think, I really should be careful not to loose my energy, spending so much time with those people. You see, I need to get back to Squam every year to keep my sanity intact and to maintain my energy.

Tell me your stories. You've got to have many great ones yourselves!