Because telling someone a story connects you to others in so many ways ….

A few years ago I had an idea, or rather I had a phrase that came to my mind and refused to leave. That phrase became the name of my instagram account, then a little time later my blog, further still it became the name I used in my healing work. And now I think of it as a name which somehow encapsulates and includes every thing I do.

Gathering Around the Fire.

At its heart, gathering around the fire, for me is a name that suggests the coming together of people, and the promise of warmth, both physical and emotional to be found thereafter. It whispers of stories told late at night around the flames of a hearth or campfire, and the spiritual sustenance to be gained from doing so.

To me it represents communality and togetherness, kin and friendship. And it makes me think of togetherness, and the gift of a story to unite one person with another. And it reminds me above all else that most of what I love and do, either as work or for my own joy, is all about stories, and the lives we lead which inspire them.

I have always told stories. When I was little I wrote fictitious newspaper articles and fantasy stories, heavily influenced by The Famous Five and Never Ending Story. and a story by Alison Uttley called ‘The traveler in time’ which embedded itself within my imagination like no other book I have ever read.

To this day I still read it. Come Autumn when the leaves turn and the seasons calls for looking inward and getting your hygge on, I turn to that book and its wonderful and evocative tale of family, time travel and the power of old houses to bring the past to life.

Later I wrote poetry and short stories, and children’s tales when I worked as a fairy storyteller at birthday parties and festivals. For quite a few years I wrote book reviews as part of my job as a children’s bookseller. I loved writing about the books that I loved reading, and hopefully passing that love onto someone else to discover for themselves.

And in between those times I wrote secret diaries and letters to friends. I filled notebooks and scraps of paper with scribbles and plans written on long train journeys up and down Wales. I had all these ways of capturing and holding the stories I had experienced and gathered around me. Netting the stories that shaped me in so many different ways.

Studying for my degree ( and gaining a First) in English Literature was one of the most prolific writing times of my life so far, as I got lost in essay writing. Hard as it was, I loved the challenge of honing my thoughts and feelings into something with shape and form; sustaining an argument or a theme, and writing it into a coherent and meaningful piece of writing.

In short, and in some way or another, I have always written. As an old piece of scrap paper I had on my fridge for years reminded me daily whenever I reached for the milk ‘I think therefore I write….’

These days stories play a different part in my life as I raise my twin daughters’. The stories I tell, and the stories I remember, have become their stories. Stories of moments we have shared together will hopefully become core memories, to be shared with their own children and grandchildren years down the line. The ancestral line strengthened by love. This is storytelling for the future that has yet to come.

As a mother my week has a routine to it I never really had before and stories play a part in that. Yes, sometimes, the pattern that informs much of my days has scant reprise from predictability that once would have seen me running to the hills screaming….But now I have a sense of grounded belonging. I have a place to belong, and come back to. A sense of place and home and my world within it.

One of things I love as someone who hangs on every word of a good story, is listening to a podcast as I am cooking dinner, or washing up the breakfast things. I love becoming absorbed in a story that takes you somewhere, sometimes emotionally, sometimes geographically, frequently both. I love a story that teaches you something, or changes you in some subtle or dramatic way. I love getting to know characters who stay with you long after the covers of the book have been closed. Characters becoming old friends, becoming voices of experience.

It was a moment such as this, at home, doing something domestic, when I had this idea to write a series of stories that told the story of different women around the Britain and Ireland. I thought about how each episode would tell the story of one woman. I would tell the story of that woman, rather than explaining their story. I imagined the sort of story I wanted to listen to, and capture the feeling of someone telling me a story. The feel of the storytelling became my starting point, and the atmosphere of the stories I wanted to tell became the texture of the words and images I was forming in my head. A feeling of come closer, let’s gather around the fire and tell each other stories to pass the long winter.

And so I have begun writing a series of small podcast episodes which I plan to record. And I wanted to write about this here because when I have written it down, I tell myself, it will take on the form of a promise, becoming an intention that is being brought into being. Its a kind of declaration. A beautiful idea being called into being.

I have chosen my first episode. It will be about Branwen. She was a a beautiful princess made immortal in the epic storytelling saga that is The Mabinogion. I have loved her and her story since I was a child. She is firmly rooted in Welsh mythology and landscape, which binds me to her even more. And I can’t wait to honour her being and breathe her into life.

So are you read, Let’s gather around the fire and then I will begin ….. ✨✨✨✨✨✨