Preliminary Schedule
In this photo, Connie stands with Rosa and Ray Hicks, legendary storykeepers of the Appalachians.
4:30 pm in the Lounge: Afternoon arrival Appalachian Storytelling and Welcome with Connie and Laura
6:00 pm in the Dining Room: Family-style supper
7:30 pm in the Chapel: Ghost Stories with Connie and Laura
9:00 pm Relax on the rocking chairs or retreat to bed
Saturday
9 a.m. Dining Hall Breakfast
10:30 a.m. – Noon Chapel: Begin with a story by Connie. Participants learn appreciations and share them. Connie teaches Appalachian Storytelling roots and about Ray. Laura relates Appalachian Storytelling to Narrative Medicine research without being boring.
Contemplation: Be aware of how a story from your own experience is emerging, wanting to be explored, if not told.
12:30 Dining Hall: Family-style Lunch
2:00-3:00 pm – Landscapes of Story Workshop, pair-work, appreciations, listening
3:00-3:30 pm – Story-meditation: participants walk or rock or rest and ponder their story, feeling it come to life and shift about inside their imaginations.
3:30-5:00 – Storytelling and Appreciations in two groups (if large numbers) facilitated by Connie and Laura; group debrief
6:00 Dining room: Family-style Supper
7:30 pm Chapel: Music and Stories with David LaMotte, Connie, and Laura (I have not asked David about this.)
9:30 pm: rest, rock, or retire
Sunday
9 a.m. Dining Room: Family-Style Breakfast
10:30-Noon Chapel: Reflection on Storytelling Experience of previous day, how the story continued to play around through the night, and the way of imagination; Laura bridges the way of imagination to the research of narrative medicine’s use of story to heal and the surprising breadth of outcomes. Return to the roots, then with exercises Connie uses in workshops that will also help doctors incorporate storytelling into their lives and practices. Laura briefly connects them to Narrative Medicine and Expressive Writing research without being boring.
-Listening
-Sensory Detail
-Imagination
-Memory
-Emotion and Personal Experience
12:30 Dining Room: Family-Style Lunch
2:00-4:00 pm Chapel: Meaning-Making and Stories
Laura speaks to the need for meaning in illness and death and the role of stories in attaining it. Connie and Laura tell a traditional story that brings the mystery of the hidden world into the conversation of healing. We hand out folktales and invite partners to work with them in connecting the magical elements to finding meaning, explaining what can’t be explained by Science.
4-4:30 pm Work on the stories.
4:30-5:30 pm Tell the stories
6 p.m. Farewell/Some may stay for supper
Narrative Medicine in the Mountains 