Readings & Videos
The Ancients
Storytelling and the Deep Ocean
Dec. 14, 2023, 10:21 p.m. • Ross Laird
The ancients were here before us. Their legacy still persists in our stories.
The Inner Life of Stories
Storytelling as a Path to Wellness
Dec. 14, 2023, 10:15 p.m. • Ross Laird
The connection between creativity, storytelling, and human development is persistent and profound. The stories we cherish help us to learn, grow, and heal. Stories of trauma and travail match and i...
Big Problems: Small Wonder
Wandering, Wonder, and Creative Pathways
June 18, 2021, 8:54 p.m. • Ross Laird
Got a minute? Try this small but illuminating experiment. Above is an image of the Milky Way Galaxy. Focus your attention on this image for one minute. Don’t do anything other than look at the imag...
Windbreaker
Glimpsing the Wanderer
Jan. 5, 2024, 7:43 p.m. • Ross Laird
I drive east, thinking about old stories. I meander through traffic, scanning alleys between the high towers, looking for people I know. Several of my counseling students will be out today, trying ...
Watchfires
Following the Story Back
Jan. 6, 2024, 3:19 p.m. • Ross Laird
Excerpted from A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth , by Ross Laird I’m tired. The insistent, repetitive motions of my work, the heat of the spinning tool, the exertion require...
Shadowlands
Following the Story Back
Jan. 6, 2024, 3:20 p.m. • Ross Laird
Excerpted from A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth , by Ross Laird The blisters on my skin do not abate. I burn, far beyond the typical acute phase of chicken pox. My fever dw...
Pilgrimage
Following the Story Back
Jan. 6, 2024, 3:20 p.m. • Ross Laird
Excerpted from A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth , by Ross Laird Martin Nordegg, the Jewish nomad who founded the mountain town in which my wife’s parents grew up, was led t...
Homecoming
Following the Story Back
Jan. 6, 2024, 3:20 p.m. • Ross Laird
Excerpted from A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth , by Ross Laird The snow line is high in the alpine; lower down, the terrain is wet and dark. Two feet of snow fell in the v...
Singing Bowl
Shaping and Being Shaped by Objects
Jan. 5, 2024, 7:42 p.m. • Ross Laird
The shank of wood is dry, and splintered at its base, and corrugated with rough grain where I have split it with an ax from the fallen log. A layer of bark, silvered and mottled, lies along one edg...
Emergence
Following the Story Back
Jan. 6, 2024, 3:18 p.m. • Ross Laird
Excerpted from A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth , by Ross Laird It is quiet on the dock. A speckle of frost on the handrail melts into the wood as I touch it. Trees on the ...