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Women and Wild Animals - Author Notes Part III

Although I began to put this together in 1983 I  recorded the stories with Steve Gorn in the early 1990's in Boulder, Colorado for NorthWord,My father had died a few years before and the last tale, a true story is about his death and four herons. 
I continue to tell the stories, going deeper hopefully in my capacity to bring them to life without manipulating them  (my attempt).  They feel more relevent today then twenty years ago.  Beside a good story never getting old; they are always fresh when they are brought out, released, and  shared.  But, our need to be reminded of our interdependence with the natural world, our abiding presence as connection - wilderness of our own heart..  is vital to our ability to live on this earth and to lessen the increasing propulsion of violence and greed that are destroying the world.   

One pathway to access that place in ourselves... that is not a place at all, but the open receptivity of direct engagement with our being that is all ready interwoven, part of - is through deep listening to such rich tales. My ever apprecation for your willingness to listen. And for having the good fortune to be a storyteller.  Open your animal eyes and ears..  Tell the stories to someone else.  laura
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Women and Wild Animals - Author Notes Part II

I have never tired of telling LOK SNOWEDJAS and learning about the story.  My first encounter with it was in Strand Bookstore, where I saw a book  of Moduc
tales printed in 1904, in the wrong area and bought it -  because when I opened it, I read the first line  of a tale, " LOK SNEWEDJAS was a woman during the day but at night she became a bear." it was the final story that I chose at that time.  I  phoned up Ron Evans, a Chippewa-Cree Keeper of the Talking Stick who was living in North Carolina at far from the reservation where he grew up in Saskatchewan. He was building a boat in Barbara Freeman's (a storyteller) driveway far from any water. 

He called me back collect later that day and we spoke for three hours. I told him the story. He listened. I asked about meanings and symbols. He never explained anything to me. But he kept telling me stories, other stories,  anecdotes about his life and being trained to be  a storyteller or being in the bush with old hunters.  I was a bit
frustrated, having always in the back of my mind my seemingly seering questions. 

Finally I asked, "why do you think I chose this story?"   He said, "You did not choose
the story. This story has chosen you."  Getting a bit nervous I said, "Perhaps I should not be telling this Native myth."  He laughed and commanded, "It chose you.
You have to tell it now. Don't be impatient or you will gather a dust storm."

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Women and Wild Animals - Author Notes Part I

In 1983 I  began gathering the stories that eventually became this recording.  It was  a process of cutting and pasting, listening and responding, to the fact that I had so many stories, both traditional and personal that were about the relationship between human beings and animals.  So many of them about women. A friend who was a  Jungian analyst said that I was living with animal eyes and ears.   The title WOMEN AND WILD ANIMALS came to mind  one morning and so the series of tales was born. 

The first time that I told these stories was at the Center for World Music that was in a storefront downtown Manhattan at that time.  We were a storyteller and three musicians (Steve Gorn, Julia Haines and Glen Velez).  The Center was packed.  The concert lasted well over three hours and none of us, audience included, seemed worn out at all. In that time the audience became  a traditional tea house audience anywhere in the world, responding, calling out, humming along, lost in deep silence or outrageously laughing together.  These stories seemed to touch a nerve, like an acupuncture needle.

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Indigenous People's Message To The World - Words & Music

In 1992 Marcos Terena, Articulator For Indigenous People's at The United Nations, organized a gathering that was to be the first time Indigenous Peoples from every continent would be in the same place. In the jungles of Brazil, just outside of Rio, a week before the First Earth Summit, The First World Conference of Indigenous People's took place.

Echoes of that seminal and ground breaking event continue to ring out. The event was closed to the public and non-indegenous peoples -- BetterListen! was called in to document on audio, the lectures and cultural music presentations.
The result is this award winning program produced by David Ison, endorsed by The United Nations, Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly,  is now available for the first time in digital format.
This project belongs in libraries, world music collections and is for anyone interested in human rights, sacred cultures and the preservation of the land and its first peoples.

-*Royalties from every sale go to help the cause of Indigenous Peoples.

Running Time:75 minutes. [Hear Sample on iTunes]

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Everyday Mindfulness: Meditation For Beginners by Beryl bender Birch Available on iTunes and on CD from BetterListen!

Yoga pioneer and best-selling author Beryl Bender Birch offers a clear and compelling introduction to the history and evolution of Mindfulness Meditation. In Part II of the program Beryl guides you through a meditation program, helping you to relax, focus, and be more mindful of whatever you are doing, not just during  meditation, but throughout the day, every day.

Based on principles from a variety of meditative traditions Beryl's guidance offers a practice for quieting and focusing your mind, gaining a greater awareness of your "self", and connecting you with the present moment-where the true joys of life are lived.

Running Time:55 minutes. [Hear Sample on iTunes]

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