Building Connections beyond Stereotypes

by Kerry Cue

One of the great joys of Posting on INSTAGRAM is coming across enthusiastic book groups with hilarious names. Boozy Book Babes is a favourite.

Here is the comment about The Sunday Story Club by the Boozy Book Babes on INSTAGRAM:

‘Beautiful cover! Would it be too ironic for our book club to read this book?’

Touché. The Sunday Story Club is like a book club without books. Whereas a book club asks ‘What do you read?’ in The Sunday Story Club we would ask ‘Why do you read?’ This last question opens up a different and deeper conversation. It is this deeper conversation that helps build connections beyond stereotypes.

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Building Connections. Creating your own Community

by Kerry Cue

We wrote The Sunday Story Club to encourage others to build connections through   deeper conversations. It is these connections that create a community. Doris and I have been running a story salon for 5 years and have built a community based on empathy and understanding because we took the time to stop and listen, really listen without interruption, to others as they told their real-life stories of love, loss, and resilience.

It seems appropriate to talk about community following an interview I did with Jeff Bullen on Community Radio RTR FM, Perth. Audio link here.

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What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?

We wrote The Sunday Story Club to show others how to facilitate good, authentic and vulnerable conversation. We live in an era when, even in a face-to-face conversation, the person opposite you may not be listening. You know what they are doing. They are scrolling through emails or text messages on their phone.

Sick of chitchat, we started our Sunday Story Club to encourage a deeper conversation. The results were so uplifting and moving we wanted to share both some of the stories and also how to run your own story salon so others can experience this magic too.

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What we sense & What we fear.

Many of us have experienced premonitions, but it is so difficult to put faith in an ethereal dream, a fleeting vision or that little voice in your head.

Have you been informed by something you have sensed? Several storytellers in The Sunday Story Club explore this theme.

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Raw & Unfiltered: Why you must speak your truth!

In the Sunday Story Club, we ask questions that sidestep prepared narratives to open up a conversation in new and refreshing ways. We want readers to run their own Salons to experience these extraordinary conversations.

We all carry stories within us – wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, and laced with unexpected and hard-won wisdom. A meaningful conversation has the power to enlighten, heal and transform.

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When parenting becomes competitive, try a different conversation.

My co-author Doris Brett and I had a wonderful conversation about non-competitive conversations with Shevonne Hunt on her FEED PLAY LOVE podcast when we were in Sydney recently.

LISTEN HERE:

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In the era of fake online personas, you need to talk.

The Sunday Story Club. We all carry stories within us – wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, and laced with unexpected and hard-won wisdom.

Your curated online persona, be it funny, adventurous or fake, is not you. You need to talk.

This book reminds us of the power of conversation to enlighten, heal and transform.

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Aretha Franklin: RESPECT!

by the Sibyls

Arethra Franklin Quote Sibylesque

Despite all her fame and success, Aretha Franklin has not had an easy life. Her mother died when she was only 10 years old. She was first pregenant at 14. She’s had 2 marriages, one involving domestic violence, given birth to 4 sons and struggled with weight gain issues all her life.  In 1979 her father C. L. was shot at point blank range in his Detroit home. Aretha moved back to Detroit in late 1982 to assist with the care of her father, who died 1984. Yet, despite all of her struggles, Arethra has bounced back again and again. This is Arethra Franklin singing and playing piano at the Kennedy Centre for President Obama in 2015.

Aretha Frannklin 1942 – 2018

We, the Sibyls, salute Arethra Franklin not only for her sublime artistry, but for her gutsy attitude to dealing with so many of the tragedies and difficulties life can throw at you.

Aretha Franklin: RESPECT!

by the Sibyls

Arethra Franklin Quote Sibylesque

Despite all her fame and success, Aretha Franklin has not had an easy life. Her mother died when she was only 10 years old. She was first pregenant at 14. She’s had 2 marriages, one involving domestic violence, given birth to 3 sons and struggled with weight gain issues all her life.  In 1979 her father C. L. was shot at point blank range in his Detroit home. Aretha moved back to Detroit in late 1982 to assist with the care of her father, who died 1984. Yet, despite all of her struggles, Arethra has bounced back again and again. This is Arethra Franklin singing and playing piano at the Kennedy Centre for President Obama in 2015.

Aretha Frannklin 1942 – 2018

We, the Sibyls, salute Arethra Franklin not only for her sublime artistry, but for her gutsy attitude to dealing with so many of the tragedies and difficulties life can throw at you.

A Year of Wisdom

The Sibyls

A Sibyls' SalonWe do not know if, around the world, 2016 will blessed with outbreaks of wisdom. But we the Sibyls, can only live in hope.

We can also, in many small ways, apply what we have learned in life. Here are just a few thoughts that have bubbled out of the Sibyls’ Salons:

*  I was thinking about fear and overcoming fear. Fear comes with possibility. Not knowing. I find that attractive. Leap into the unknown.

*  To find yourself you have to become unmoored.

*  The hardest thing for me to learn to do is ‘keep quiet.’

*  You can have theories or children.

*  Learn from other people’s mistakes because you do not have time to make them all yourself.

When we take time to think and feel and talk in a safe, non-judgemental forum, wisdom gets a chance to bloom.

Artwork: By talented Sibyl Elizabeth D.