Storytelling has a numinous quality for me. As a young child, I was read to by both parents. From a treasury of stories from around the world, I was instilled with a love of reading and the awareness that word and image together have the power to create or destroy worlds conjured from the substance of the imagination. In my family and throughout my life, books retained a deep and honored place of respect. Books contained a kingdom of treasures to discover. Growing up, I often hid under the bedclothes with a flashlight at night to keep reading after bedtime 'lights out'. Wandering the world of a story's imagination is still a cherished delight. Some of my father's barnyard stories brought new life to his own childhood daily chores with the magic of animals working together to solve problems. As my great aunt's 'Hobbyhill' puppet workshop and subsequent book her puppets wrote revealed, he wasn't alone. Some of those puppets and characters still emerge in my own storytelling today, finding new purpose in being reinvented anew.

 

I am still fascinated with the many ways stories can transmit wonder and mystery through animal companions, teaching humans how to become friends with the natural world and together, igniting new journeys of collaboration across the globe. From the living interaction between all of us creatures of the world, life can be magical as well as instructive. Now more than ever, the natural world's innate intelligence is trying to get our attention, urging each of us to find and grow the spirit of goodwill in our lives. Raven's metaphorical searching for the voice within is a call to recognize the fundamental benevolence of the world, and to be mindful how to better protect the well-being of others in sharing this fragile, beautiful planet of ours. 

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