10.42 So Close to Never Happening

Last week at the launch for the Stories We Don’t Tell book, we posed the question: What does Stories We Don’t Tell mean to us? For me, I think quite a bit about how this all came so close to never happening.

It’s taken a while, but something happened to me as we went through the process of putting this book together. You see, when you’re doing a monthly event, you finish one event and it’s on to figuring out the next one. Through the book, I was reacquainted with all of the people that have been involved with this event. Their stories. Their voices. I am so grateful to all of the people that contributed a piece of their life to this book, that they trusted us with their stories, and in many cases, their most important stories. The kind that defines them.

The event has led to one of the longest and most important collaborations of my life. When we got the proof of the book in the mail, I felt the power of all the stories hit me at once. Holding the book in my hands, it was the first time that I let myself feel the accomplishment.

For me, I think about how close it came to never happening. Everything: the book, the event, the people. I tried to imagine what my life would be like without Stories We Don’t Tell. Without Stefan and Brianne and all the people I’ve met. All the stories we’ve shared together. I tried to image, and I couldn’t see anything. Just a blank void. And I just feel lucky, how lucky I am, because it all came so close to never happening.

Stefan and I put together an event where we wanted to bring the audience through how Stories We Don't Tell has evolved over the last five years. As usual with these things, we used video and were accompanied by the amazing singer/songwriter Arlene Paculan to amplify our message.

The highlight of the evening for me was when we brought all the contributing authors on stage to take a bow. Most books have one author, but ours had almost fifty. It was truly an honour to share the stage with these amazing and generous individuals.

And that's a wrap. Five years, fifty shows, over a hundred podcast episodes, four launch events, and one book. I'm tired, so I'm done talking about this for a while and will probably sleep for the next week. Frankly, I'm tired of me. But now the book is out there in the world. It exists. We hope to create some type of legacy as all profits will go to benefit these three charities:

Native Women in the Arts: Not-for-profit organization for First Nations, Inuit and Métis women who share the common interest of art, culture, community and the advancement of Indigenous peoples.

The Red Door Family Shelter: Since 1982, the Red Door has provided emergency shelter and support for women who are fleeing violence at home, families who are evicted, refugees, or young mothers who may have nowhere to go.

StoryPlanet: A non profit organization dedicated to amplifying voices and improving literacy skills through non-traditional creative learning experiences with children and youth in under-resourced schools and communities. They believe that empowering young people to share their stories, and respect the voices of others, will create a more empathic and inclusive world.

Things keep moving forward as we have our next show in a few days from the publishing of this article. I can't wait to see what the next five years brings.