#Story Telling Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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#Story Telling

Thursday, 13 August, 2026

Posted on August 12, 2026
in #Story Telling, Awareness, Reading Books, Travel
2 Comments

Hayden Island, Portland, May 2021 From the Portland airport we took a cab to Red Lion Hotel on Jantzen Beach in Hayden Island, Oregon. The eastern sky threatened with thunderclouds, pouring down with vengeance, while the western sky welcomed us with dazzling sunlight.  Our hotel balcony overlooked the Columbia River, partly hidden behind pine trees. Was it the same river upon which Louis and Clark sailed with their crew? I couldn’t believe I was looking at it. How fortune! The next morning we walked to where our boat, “American Harmony,” was docked right behind the pines! Under the early morning sunlight the air was fresh. We continued walking on a trail that ran parallel to the river. Cumulus clouds announced themselves against the bright blue sky with such assurance that I straightened my...

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Posted on June 8, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, #Story Telling, Creativity, Flourishing, Oral Stories, Originality, Writing
0 Comments

Magnolia Blossoms, Ashby Ponds, 2026 Have you been tinkering with the poem you started in the class? Or perhaps wrote another one? Great job! Few facts about poetry: The craft of writing poems is deliberate, attentive, and it requires absolute concentration. It is simultaneously intuitive and inventive. Poetry emerges like the bursting of a bud. It grows and ripens like fruit.Poetry grows on us. It helps refine our thinking and enhances journaling. You may not want to become a poet but you learn to have a grasp on words and how they have power to stir deep feelings and emotions in you that you may not have experienced before. Reading poetry, like writing in a journal is a private, intimate experience. It stirs self-examination. It helps us deal with paradoxical emotions we don’t understand. Poems...

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Thursday, April 23, 2026

Posted on April 22, 2026
in #Story Telling, Awareness, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement, Well Being
4 Comments

Waiting, Oil paints on canvas board, 1975 Singing the praises of reading, Horace Mann (1796-1859) early 19th century American public education reformist, widely known as “The Father of American Education,” advised, “Resolve to edge in a little reading every day even if but a single sentence.”  Erasmus, 15th century scholar and humanist wrote, “Before you sleep, read something that is exquisite and worth remembering.” “When you walk in the mist, you get wet,” says the thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen. He means that you absorb the stuff you take in and the environment that surrounds you.   Reading lets you step out of your cloistered life and dwell in the midst of masters. By the process of unconscious assimilation, good books enter your mind. Reading improves vocabulary, reasoning, concentration,empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence. Read new books and read old books....

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Posted on April 20, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, #Story Telling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement
2 Comments

Loneliness, Oil on canvas, 1977 Whether reading for pleasure or personal growth, what you enjoy depends on your interests and experiences. What you choose to read is as unique as what you enjoy eating or wearing. When you select a book to read, what are you seeking? Pleasure, growth, transformation? It is not what you choose to read but what happens to you when you are absorbed in reading – that pleasurable feeling of forgetting who and where you are, temporarily experiencing life through someone else’s perspective! I read to be entertained, to learn, to adventure into unknown worlds where my heart is slashed, where my guts are punched, or a brick falls on my head. With each book I read, my emotional and intellectual sensibilities emerge and deepen. In 2003, a group...

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Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025
in #Story Telling, Travel, Writing
2 Comments

Lewis and Clark Exploration (The Corps of Discovery) shifted into settlements when fur traders and explorers moved westward within a few years after the captions and their crew returned home. Within 30 years (1830s-1840’s) began large scale settlements by ordinary families. That’s from where small American towns west of Mississippi trace their origin. Such historic towns, nestled in beautiful landscapes, reflect the persona of the American people – down to earth and friendly, proud of who they are and where they live.  Before taking the Corps of Discovery voyage, we had visited cosmopolitan cities in the United States – New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles – and capital cities of the world – Cape Town, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, London, Paris, Rome and Lhasa. We had gazed at great monuments and sailed long rivers....

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Tuesday, April 16, 2025

Posted on April 15, 2025
in #Story Telling, Reading, Travel
4 Comments

Some more benefits from daily reading as evidenced from scientific research groups: Researchers from Yale School of Public Health showed that reading for 30 minutes a day can add two years to your life span. It keeps the brain active enough to prevent a decline in thinking and processing. Another research study at the University of Sussex shows that reading even for 6 minutes (!) before falling sleep reduces stress. It is better than listening to music or drinking a warm cup of milk. A book is not only a pleasant distraction but also actively engages and expands your imagination, thus helping you enter an altered state of consciousness. Cognition associated with Alzheimer’s is strengthened by reading, which builds discerning power that can compensate for the loss of brain cells damaged by aging and...

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