Monday 30 July 2012

Night Stories


I caught up with the Olympics opening ceremony on BBC iPlayer, and I'm glad I did. I loved it, particularly the first part with Brunel, the section with the nurses and children, and the wonderful olympic symbol coming together out of the factory forge.

When it was actually being broadcast though, I was attending a real-life storytelling session on Hampstead Heath. I've written about the heath before. It is several square miles of historic countryside which has been preserved in Northwest London, with forest, fields and many strange and interesting relics and curiosities to be spotted. I don't know what this building is, but my niece used to call it the Witch's Cottage - look at that zigzag path winding away....

Anyway, a group of us gathered at Hampstead Heath railway station in mid evening, and we set off through the woodland.

It was dark but there were some shafts of late sunshine, and it was so pretty.


We walked for ten or fifteen minutes and finally reached a remote grove of trees where we settled down in a group with rugs and thermos flasks and sandwiches

As the twilight deepened, we listened to people tell stories of transformations in their lives.

The first speaker told of how a chance encounter with a long-ago family tragedy gave him a new perspective on his father. The second told of how her work as a medium helped her cope with the truly horrific and gory death of her mother when she was only nine years old.


A third speaker told of her extraordinary Christian mystical experiences and encounters with God, but her ultimate disillusionment with her church's harsh social attitudes.

Speaker number four spoke about a teenage fit of temper, which injured herself and another person. It showed her that she must take control of her emotions if she was to be the person she wanted to be. The fifth speaker spoke of her destructive anorexia and body hatred, and how she learned to see herself differently and be glad of who she was.

Some of the stories were painful to hear, some were rambling and some were thought provoking. But everyone listened with great interest.



It was brave of the speakers to reveal themselves and their inner secrets like that. I spoke to a couple of them afterwards and they were shattered. I hope they found it helpful too. I don't think I could have done it. Could you?

I was with my friends CC and AD, who are respectively a teacher and a computer game developer. We had a lot to talk about as we went back through the lonely night time Heath. Some of the time we had to use flashlights to see the path, but there are a few old streetlights here and there - a touch of "Lion Witch and Wardrobe" even though it wasn't snowing.


AD and CC were most interested in the story about Christianity. I learned that CC follows the teachings of the Indian guru Meher Baba and AD is searching for a religion, but he once saw a mystical golden glow and radiance around Benjamin Creme when he was making a film about religions. Although he has thought about it a lot, he does not know what to believe.

41 comments:

  1. I loved the opening ceremony, too - I think the winged bikes were my favourite.

    The storytelling sounds incredible, and as you say, very brave.

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  2. Hello Jenny:
    What a most interesting and very unusual evening. Yes, we too think it very brave of the speakers to have revealed so much of themselves, often clearly of a very personal nature, to the group but we are certain that everyone will have left with much to think about and, possibly, a little wiser too.

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  3. Sounds a great evening. I love the pictures, particularly the lamplight one.
    I watched the opening ceremony and enjoyed it very much :-) x

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  4. What a wonderful evening. And isn't it great when everyone takes away something different - the event lives on in the varied stories told about it.

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  5. Jenny, I enjoyed this story. The idea of doing the things you did in this story and have people tell stories while out there appeals to me - Dave

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  6. While I read it I also thought of how brave they were to reveal such vulnerabilities about themselves. Amazing they were so trusting to a group of strangers, I am really intrigued by the area of Hampstead Heath. Heard about it, but now am really fascinated.

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  7. Sometimes, it's the sharing that helps the healing due to the understanding and the feeling that get from the support from others.
    Yes I've been there before.
    As for the Olympics, I've only watched parts of it here and there but my hubby has it on one of the tv's 24/7 (well it seems like it's been a week, even if it hasn't). My son has changed his IP address on his computer to Britain so that he can watch the events that he wants to watch on the BBC. Over here, NBC has the contract for showing it and they've only been showing what they 'think' the mass majority wants to see. He's watch badminton thanks to BBC. Didn't know it was considered a sport, but NBC hasn't even shown highlights of it.

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  8. What an interesting evening that must have been. I'm not sure I could have opened up so readily.

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  9. It sounds like a group therapy session in a very interesting setting.

    Lovely pictures, as usual.

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  10. What an incredible experience for you and everyone there. Thank you for sharing them.

    p.s. I love that witch's cottage!

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  11. Somehow for many people it seems to be easier to open up in front of a group of strangers than to talk about such very personal matters with their friends or family.
    Two weeks ago, RJ and I attended a different kind of storytelling evening; a lady who hosts such events 5 times a year had invited us to her home. A group of about 20 guests were there; we all sat down in the family's converted garden shed (a proper stone built one, it used to be a pigsty in medieval times, she told us), and our hostess stood in the front, the place was lit with candles and decorated nicely. At each event, she tells stories related to one particular topic; this time, the topic was Herbs. Some stories were slightly religious, others were fables and fairy tales, others were a bit saucy, and they were all fun to listen to but left you with something to think about as well as giving you information about various herbs and their healing or other properties.
    During a short break and afterwards, we were invited to eat from a buffet of many different dishes, both sweet and savoury, all made with herbs from her own garden, such as lavender cookies, basil pesto cakes, and so on.
    It was a lovely evening and we'll go back in November when the topic will be Chocolate!

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  12. I love the trek and sitting in the evening with lights and telling stories. Is this a group that does this sort of thing often? It would be hard to do but hopefully very cleansing.

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  13. I always like listening to other people's stories. The evening sounds so interesting and the place the gathering was held looks magical.

    Darla

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  14. Oh I do see the look of it in your last photo for sure. The witch's cottage too makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for sharing such a lively and interesting evening as that...it's just my kind of experience! Lucky you!

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  15. I too saw the opening ceremony on the iplayer...in company with friends and neighbours in Costa Rica. They were delighted by it, but the NHS scene and Mary Poppins took some explanation!
    The highlights for them...the Queen parachuting in and, of course, their own team parading into the arena.

    As to the evening on Hampstead Heath, that magical place....I am truly puzzled why people want to tell perfect strangers about highly personal experiences.
    Do they feel that others listening to them validates their reactions in some way?

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  16. I've only just caught up with the opening ceremony too and I have to say there wasn't much I didn't like - inspired! The storytelling evening sounds quite painful in may ways but as you say if they found the experience cathartic then it was a valuable one. I'm not sure I could have done it though; 'storytelling'has a different meaning for me I think.

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  17. Your mention of the teenage fit of temper makes me think of a defining moment in my own childhood when my granny told me I mustn't grow up to have a foul temper like my father but should be more even-tempered. I realised she was right and from that day I've never been more than mildly irascible.

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  18. I haven't been watching the Olympics, but that evening in the woods was one to touch the soul! It means so much when people open themselves up like that and share the things of great meaning in their lives. Wow! What an evening!! :) :)

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  19. I've never watched a whole Olympics opening ceremony until now but I really loved this one. And especially the part connecting to children's litarature, of course! Your adventure on the heath sounds interesting as well, though. Reading your blog post, I was reminded of the novel Ghosts - the story of a reunion by Adrian Plass. See my review of it here

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  20. I thought the opening ceremony was great. I wonder how they convinced Her Majesty to jump out of a helicopter.

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  21. I think story telling itself can be magical. How often, as adults, do we actually sit down to listen to another person or raconteur? And witness the growing popularity of audiobooks to download: I'm obviously not the only one who can enjoy listening to a story.

    Sounds like a great evening - likewise librarian's evenings.

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  22. The evening in the woods sounds like a very special time. I hope the people who took the risk to share felt it benefited them. I don't think I could do that, myself, but then the scene and the night seems condusive to that kind of sharing.

    We turned in to the Olymics late on Friday night--in time for those amazing bikes, though. I'm hoping to find it on the Intenet so I can watch the beginning. I've seen clips and it looks like fun. Plus, I have to spot the tardis when it appears!

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  23. I suppose the story telling was something like blogging, where you can pour out your innermost feelings/experiences to a group of anonymous yet mostly caring people. I say mostly caring because there are some real bastards out there.

    I too may have had a religious experience. Last night I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I saw a mysterious golden glow and radiance around my bottle of Laphroig...but on closer examination it was just a table lamp behind it.

    After almost 60 yers on this bloody planet, I have never seen or heard anything that wasn't explainable by the Laws of Physics or Chemistry. Except maybe the popularity of the BeeGees, there is no rational explantion for that.

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  24. They sound like an interesting and very diverse group -- it must be a story in itself how this was brought together.

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  25. You do the most interesting things. I LOVE your life. I scoop kitty litter and drive my son around. I think you are winning in the "experiencing life to the fullest" category.

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  26. Wow, it all sounds terrific...I really do not open up too well with strangers. Blogging has helped with that somewhat. I'm also curious about brought this group together. Thanks for commenting on my blog. I must get back to writing consistently.

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  27. What an interesting evening. If I am correct and the group were all strangers to each other, I think they were very brave to reveal their innermost thoughts. I could not have done that.

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  28. The setting for the storytelling looks beautiful. I'm not sure if I could talk about such private things in front of strangers. Sometimes I'm cynical and think that possibly people who do this sort of thing just want attention and seem interesting to other people. But then I tell myself I should be more understanding; telling strangers might indeed be easier than telling friends. It probably does feel "cleansing" as someone mentioned.

    I don't watch much television. Mostly I follow the Olympics by listening to what co-workers talk about the next day.

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  29. I attended something similar once. People got up and shared private secrets, including the girl I went with. It was really touching and one of the stories really touched me.

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  30. You enjoyed the opening ceremony? Are you on drugs woman? Tsk!

    Of the variety of religious experience there are many, usually false!
    Much phenomena is explainable, Jesus death for rotten to the core people is not, outside of his choice to love.

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  31. We too gave the Olympic opening ceremony a miss, having been bored stiff by them in the past, and are now watching it on i player.

    The picnic in the park with lanterns almost sounds like Famous Five adventure, with a twist.

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  32. I don't know what I thought of the event under the trees. I am glad I went, and I would go again, because it was unusual. Although I don't do much interviewing now, I used to do a lot for magazines and people often used to tell me all kinds of things. It was awkward because I felt it was rather a responsibilty, specially as my job was to write about it - I used to feel they had forgotten that and got into "confessional" mode. But it was also therapeutic for them and actually I came to thee conclusion that on the whole it is better to get things out. The audience was small and appeared pretty sympathetic. A number of audience members were inspired to get up and tell their own stories after that, and it did seem to help people.

    So lots of issues floating around.

    As for the mystical experiences, I am open minded. I have never felt anything like that myself, but I see no reason to disbelieve people who say they have.

    Dawn Treader, I am going to look at your review now. I haven't had time before. I might get the book if it sounds like a good read, I'm looking for a slightly supernatural book to read at present :)

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  33. I enjoyed the opening ceremony of the games and all of that time agadable Mr. Been, fantastic. A huge hug.

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  34. What beautiful photos, and what an amazing evening that must have been. Story telling is a dying art now, isn't it.

    BTW I learnt to walk on Hamstead Heath!

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  35. I would love to go to a story session...informal or formal. Here we have a Storytelling event..not like your intimate night. There is something great about spinning a story and imagery. I have a college level course with a section on storytelling..very helpful in my teaching. Love your photo story.

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  36. What fascinating stories and beautiful photographs of your evening. It sounds like a night well worth attending, thank goodness for technology and the i-player so you didn't miss out on the Opening Ceremony! x

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  37. What an enchanting session for such an emotional and honest sharing. This sounds simply wonderful.

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  38. What a glorious location for such an interesting event. And judging by the stories being told, the mixture and richness of lives sounds not entirely unlike what was going on on stage in Stratford at the Opening Ceremony...maybe this was the people's version?

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  39. To answer your question: no. Even if I had a story to tell. Although if I did have a story to tell of some trauma then perhaps the answer would be in the affirmative. Who knows what life-changing trauma can do to one.

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  40. Thank you for sharing your experience

    That's an event I'd like on my list of things to do if ever I find myself being a tourist there.

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  41. This post gave me so much to think about. It is a favourite post for me.
    I love story telling. I love nature setting and
    I miss being out with friends!!
    Glad you have all this in place.

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