Welcome to Storyteller’s Connection. Bright Hawk answers the call to storytelling! She tells the story of her journey with storytelling and offers a tip for forming your story. Enjoy this episode and many more to come!
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This is the introduction of what we intend for Storyteller’s Connection. We hope you resonate with this message and if you do we encourage you to also join us for the LIVE Storyteller’s Connection where we can hear your story, too!
www.BrightHawkProductions.com
Thank you for listening to Storyteller’s Connection – Together We make Better Stories!
DID you reserve YOUR book? If you have reserved it yet we recommend getting yours reserved and cash in on the free standard Ebook with your Signed Hardback book!
YOU ALREADY reserved your book! Good Job! Did you know the enhanced Ebook has Bright Hawk reading the story to the listener with her handpan music and sound effects! Don’t miss this $14.99 value! Simply attend the Book Release Party, celebrate, enjoy the interviews and previews AND see the special guest! AND you get a free Enhanced Ebook on top of your Hardback signed copy and your standard Ebook.
The long-awaited Dancing Hippo Book is on sale NOW for presales! There are several ways to pre-order your book.
-Attend the Book release party and Reserve your Signed Hardback Copy to get the newly developed Enhanced Ebook FREE (audio/visual experience – Bright Hawk’s music, storytelling & videos) as well as a FREE standard Ebook. (mailed on 11/27/20)
–Reserve your book on Amazon but give up the freebies and signed book. (paperback available) (mailed on 11/27/20)
We are so excited to release this beautifully illustrated book just in time for the next generation! Help kids learn how to manage hard emotions, overcome naysayers, and be their most authentic selves. This book has even folded in gender inclusivity so ALL children can see themselves in this story. GLBTQIA+ friendly.
We love to visit our friends all along the way, so when a good friend asked us to brave high altitude in snow season to soak in sacred waters with her for her 60th Birthday, we said YES! We were honored to hold space for her during this sacred time and to spend some time in natural hot springs. She had a favorite place and invited us for a few days just before the American holiday, Thanksgiving. It seemed Mother Nature was willing to cooperate. After a stopover in Flagstaff, AZ we were grateful for Pleasant Journey Alpacas to stay with our Harvest Hosts Membership. We enjoyed a quiet night, a bit of electricity for our little space heater and fantastic neighbors. The next morning we were excited to experiment with the handpan and alpacas. Here’s is what happened, we captured it on video for you!
Fun to see what the Alpacas would do for the handpan!
Since Mother Nature was creating an opening for us to drive up in altitude we took advantage of the opening. We know that roads are well plowed but our van on the edge of roads with slippery frozen melted snow can be very scary, especially with no side rails. We planned to drive in the midday, up through Ouray, CO to Orvis Hot Springs near Telluride, CO. We checked the road conditions cameras and we were confident about our climb in altitude. We were mesmerized by the beauty of long slow drive up the mountain with a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains. As we wound up the mountain we began to notice that the snow was getting deeper and more prevalent. As we climbed even further it was clear that some areas where what we call ‘black ice’. Mountain people like us know that ‘black ice’ can be dangerous because it looks like its just damp, but actually it’s a sheet of ice. We proceed slowly, pulling over to let little front wheel drive cars with skis on their roof, go ahead. As we climbed in altitude Bright Hawk found herself gripping the wheel as if that would make her more accurate in her driving. She paid close attention to the road, watching for black ice, going slow and steady. That was Bright Hawk’s superpower when we were climbing, slow and steady. Often in a slow and steady pace you can find contentment and stability through an otherwise stressful situation. Hollis appreciated this calm strong approach and joined Bright Hawk in holding the energy of our end result: Landing at the Hot Spring, soaking in sacred waters, and chatting with our friend.
These Guys where super cute!
After a stressful drive we were grateful to have overcome with determination and stability. We finally landed at Orvis Hot Springs. Living in a van offers many benefits and challenges, it seems to call some of us on a deep level, and often people don’t fully comprehend this is our 3rd winter in our van. We often take a couple of months away from the van by house sitting for others but it takes a bit to fully comprehend a couple that lives full time in an RV Van. As a result we don’t always pack in the same way for things, because we always have a kitchen with us or we always have a variety of clothes stashed in our van. Our work can be done everywhere and when running your own business, every opportunity to get some work done is a potential step in progress. Progress is the reward when working for yourself! As we empty out into the room with our friend we are reminded of just how different we pack. Thank goodness our friend is flexible. In the hot springs we use quiet time in the sacred waters to more deeply develop our brands and make plans for our future. Our planning often inspires our friends to harvest their own potentiality, and since our friend is about to retire, she loves to think about it. We love to support anyone dreaming of their future and working to overcome whatever holds us back. We all enjoy the waters, discuss our potentiality and our future. After several days, we all receive the rewards of deep relaxation and we are faced with only a small window to leave this mountain town without large accumulation of snow on the roads for the next many days.
We make our plans to go our separate ways after great times in sacred water. We use all our resources about weather and road conditions to plan on landing in a little donut hole between all the storms set to reach this area in the coming day. We plan our road trip in the middle of the day this time with just one challenging area. The roads in Norwood, CO could be dangerous if the temperature drops, although we notice it’s not supposed to be too cold. It is the warm spot just before a big snow storm and we are grateful to have found a place to safely hunker down in between storms. Our biggest concern was road conditions heading out, sometimes mountains can have unexpected weather.
Fun Farm to camp at overnight, great people!
As we headed out we were grateful to have a mostly easy drive, yet with a few spots of black ice. When a mountain shadows a part of the road, yet the snow is melting on the other side of the hill down into the shadow area. Often that can become black ice and we are quickly approaching the one high altitude pass that could be a potential problem, Norwood, CO. We are grateful when the road is mostly clear and we are aware that our choice to leave during the height of the sun was a good choice. We come around a blind corner to slowed traffic, “Oh No, I hope it’s not an accident!” As we both look ahead and wind around and up the mountain we begin to realize what will become the biggest challenge off this mountain top.
We are in a line of traffic just like the cows, being led up the hill by a herd of cattle, literally. The handlers on their horses working hard to keep the cows from cutting us off. As we drive right next to cows working so hard to get up the hill through snow and right on the edge of a pretty large cliff. We are inspired by their trust for each other as they follow blindly behind each other. Occasionally one would get spooked and step out of the line and we would feel connection to this amazingly strong animal. We have all had those moments, where we step out – challenge the status quo and either change the whole group as a result or realize it was not the right time and jump back in. Fascinating to watch the handlers on their horses driving these cows to another place for reasons we didn’t comprehend. We found ourselves grateful that these cows get to walk and graze on grass and although we had no idea what their destiny was, we knew it was better than in some places in our country. Witnessing farming has influenced how we see our food.
As we mentioned, #Vanlife, will change you forever. Vanlife is challenging with unique blessings and lessons. Applying compassion, love, understanding, excellent communication, and vulnerability we are uplifted with an experience that teaches us a lot about human relationships with nature, animals and each other. Simple witnessing the entire herd being moved by the handlers on horses, with the ancient art of being a cowgirl/cowboy, we could sense the deep love and respect they had for the animals. Also, we sensed that the animals, for the most part, trusted their handlers. Although, just like with humans, there are always outliers and sometimes they would change the entire line of cattle for the better. Such as getting them away from a steep cliff, we would notice that the handlers would see what spooked them, and then let it be changed. Is this an example of living in harmony with cattle, we weren’t convinced, but we had a deeper understanding of the history of cattle raising.
Video of our COW encounters
This was our biggest challenge leaving the area. We were happy to arrive at the Hovenweep Campground, pretty much all to ourselves as the holiday was upon us. We hope you will keep reading as we continue to harvest stories from our adventures on the road of life. Stories are developed by Hollis Taylor (Author of Divine Androgyne) & Bright Hawk your Storyteller here at BrightHawkProductions.com
A Beautiful Journey
We are working hard to develop more products for you this winter, so stay tuned for upcoming big announcements. Need something positive and unique for your event? Bright Hawk offers performances for 60-90 mins of live storytelling with the handpan that will leave your community feeling connected, loved, and inspired. A modern rendition of the ancient art of storytelling with a very modern instrument. Bright Hawk’s messages are sincere, inspiring and engaging to audiences that desire positive thinking, lifelong learning, and love for all people. Bright Hawk offers real-life travel stories, original and traditional fictional stories to intrigue even grown up imaginations. Bright Hawk is planning her 2020 schedule now and welcomes invitations to visit your community in 2020!
After a great time celebrating our friend’s birthday at Orvis Hot Springs, we had to fly out in between big snowstorms. As we defrosted Pegasus, our Ford Transit Van, and got on the road we were excited about where the weather was pointing us this holiday. We were excited to land just outside the Canyon of the Ancients, in Utah. It made sense because many storms wherein the 4 corners area and this spot would be spared. It might get a little cold but we really needed to avoid any kind of snow accumulation.
Intense skies validate the upcoming winter storm over the Holiday
After our experience on the “Forgiving” Holiday at Standing Rock a few years ago we were inspired to celebrate the holiday in a different way. We work at giving Gratitude all day and every day but on “Thanksgiving” aka “Forgiving” we learn about the history of the Indigenous peoples of North America. We honor their tribes, all they have been through. We where deeply honored this year to learn about the ancient culture that live at “Hovenweep” on the west side of the Canyon of the Ancients, teeny little place that is likely part of the ancient Pueblo People. It even has its own inexpensive boondocking campsite! Our biggest challenge in this space would be wind, considering what we were surrounded by, we were grateful on this holiday to be on such sacred land.
We took the 2-mile hike around the canyon, carefully visiting and learning about each ruin. We noticed everything was on the edge of the canyon or in the canyon. The sky was cloudy, a little threatening but the weather prediction just showed cloudiness. We embraced the moment to tune into this ancient civilization and appreciated all the anthropologists that had studied here. What they unfolded was the truth about the first people of this land, that in fact maybe they weren’t so ‘primitive’. As we walked the edge and stared at the ruins we imagined them not much different than us now, except they of course didn’t have the technology. At least they didn’t have cell phones and computers but we are sure they communicated, maybe through scouts or drumming from one mountain top to another? We wondered about the food they ate, farmed, and stored! Truly they were enlightened with the wisdom to live in harmony with nature – seemed many ancient civilizations understood this. We wondered how humanity had lost this connection, so many theories and opinions on that for sure. Most of us agree we must figure out how to live in harmony. After all, these ancient people lived here 800yrs ago and many other civilizations lived on earth for way longer. They didn’t deplete the land as we do in just a couple hundred years!
The day got windier and windier and we were grateful for the break from the winds as we descended into the canyon on the trail. We were grateful to understand even deeper just how smart these folks where, how they knew this desert would be very windy. We stood there in the center of the canyon, looking up at the threatening sky in wonderment at how these people learned to live in this canyon. As we deeply benefited in those moments to be completely protected from the 25mph winds up on the edge of the canyon, we smiled and KNEW deeply that these people where in harmony with nature. We began to grow hungry so we decided to finish the hike and go back to our van for lunch. We began to harvest the wisdom of these ancient people’s and honor their intelligence, connection, and mystery.
We were sure that the weather would stay calm even though the sky looked a little confused. As we climbed up the other side of the cliff to walk along the edge of the canyon back to the campsite we found ourselves looking upwards. Half the sky, was very dark and threatening but thank goodness we were moving towards the more clear sky. The light fluffly clouds encouraged us to just keep walking and we thought. How could we possibly blog about our experience today, in a good way? Really it’s a simple hike, maybe we find a way to share the wisdom of these ancient people. We had began to contemplate this story as the wind picked up, more and more. Both of us looking up now it seemed the half of the sky that was dark had reached out for us and it was blowing harder, faster and more intensely. We walk a little faster and it seems that cloud reaches for us even more and now with hail and snow pouring down on us so fast we barely can comprehend where the sun ran off to. The hail and the snow blew so hard both of us where reminded of blizzard conditions. Putting our heads down and practically running for shelter we noticed that something so confusing was happening above us, that the snow appeared blue. We ducked into the public bathroom, panting from running, and both of us relieved to be out of the weather.
Minutes later we want to dart for our van, but now the weather has stopped. As if the ancients wanted us to share this with you, and they added just enough excitement to make it a story for YOU! We hope you are enjoying this Story Blog. All stories are developed by Bright Hawk – a professional long time storyteller that often plays music with her stories. AND Hollis Taylor, author and longtime blogger. We share these stories to inspire wanderers, open your heart and eyes, and to recommend some cool places to visit.
As a Queer couple we stand with the LGBTQ community in proving that, no matter who you love, we are all just human beings having a human experience on planet earth. With Diversity and harmony we know, just like in nature, we can all thrive as a human race together. Thank you for your support! If your interested in having us visit YOUR community, please be sure to contact us. We are happy and honored to visit you along our journeys. We are booking 2020, right now.
Bright Hawk’s CD offers her fun stories that inspire our best selves, we hope you take a moment to listen. She also has a few songs on the album that she drafted with the handpan, the instrument she often uses while storytelling. We hope you take a moment to order and download her CD, follow us on Facebook/Instagram/Youtube for future growth in 2020!
