On Sunday almost two weeks ago (time goes way too fast), I was picked up at the hotel in Vilnius and driven out to the countryside. I was going lead a workshop. I ended up in a very alternative place and the first thing that met me was bathing nudists followed by a cocoa ceremony. I do not feel quite at home in such situations but pretend to blend naturally into an environment by smiling and nodding my head. It is the joy of being a traveler storyteller, you end up in situations and places you would not otherwise have visited.
It was absolutely beautiful there, the place was located by a lake, and we lived in cottages that kept a standard at the most necessary. I was eaten by mosquitoes and fed vegetarian food. It is important to put oneself in uncomfortable situations, this creates narratives, a narrative comes from being able to step into one’s own vulnerability and reflect on it. That is what is great about getting into unfamiliar situations, new bodily experiences and memories I can share.
For a resourceful bunch of participants, absolutely amazing. The organization has worked as a community for several years, a community that complements each other. The workshop participants consisted of actors, politicians, graphic designers and writers and others. They were active, critical, and exploratory.
I followed some kind of standard workshop that I usually have. From imagination to folk tales, via the autobiographical. As usual in such shorter courses, it is autobiographical that made the most of it. On the other hand, I got some new stories, one I am going to convey here, retold in my way and here I have probably interpreted it very much in my way!:
There was a married woman who one day went to the field to cut. It was early in the morning; the sun threw its first rays down. She came to the field and to her surprise, she saw the wind standing there. Not only did the wind stand there, but the wind actually stood there without trousers and showed his bottom. The girl jumped of surprise, while the wind became even more frightened and filled with a great shame. The wind begged and prayed and said, if you don’t tell this anyone, I’m going to make you rich!
The woman then said, how will you make me rich?
The wind answered, good weather should always accompany you. If you need rain, you get it and if you need sun, just ask for it.
The woman agreed to this.
This went well for a while. She worked on the farm with her husband one day, and then they both ran into the barn and laid down in the hay. When she saw her husband, she remembered the wind and smiled. Her husband wanted to know what she was laughing at, and she could not help but tell him what she had experienced. As soon as she said it, the wind came and blew the roof off the barn and from then on, she was always surrounded by bad weather.