Issue #1 The Magic Heron Newsletter–Meet the Experts on Storytelling

Welcome to the 1st issue of The Magic Heron Newsletter, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Shanna Lea, with a focus on journaling, writing, and learning nature’s wisdom through midlife. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you.

North Carolina, February 14, 2021

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Hi there!

The last two weeks I’ve been busy doing maintenance on my blog. It’s been cold out, so I haven’t gone outside that much except to physical therapy. I broke my wrist 2 months ago and the bone has healed but the muscles, tendons and ligaments are still stiff and the inflammation is still pinching on a nerve somewhere that makes my thumb numb.

I can’t stand when I can’t “feel” stuff with my fingers! Like, silverware when I’m washing it, and then it slips right out of my grasp. Hopefully, this will get better in time.

Nature Happenings . . .

Robins are showing up, in flocks! I’m in North Carolina at the moment helping my son. I’m from Texas and have always seen just a few robins during the spring. Here, they come in flocks. They are out in the grass pulling and tugging up worms from the soaked soil after the recent rain that came through.

Rain—it rains a LOT here. Where I’m from gets around 19” of rain a year. Here in North Carolina, they get 56” a year. It seems like it rains ALL THE TIME. But, that’s ok, that gives me time inside to work on my projects.

Blog Post . . .

In case you missed the newest blog post, you can read it here: 

The Life Story Summit—write your life stories with 25+ storytellers and coaches

Stacy Brookman is putting together a Life Story Summit that I can’t wait to watch. I’m looking forward to learning more about life story writing from these interviews. I have journaled for over 30 years and have a lot of material to work with now for writing my own life stories. 

Journaling has been a life saver for me for many hard times I was going through as well as recording day to day things I wanted to remember. Life story writing is the next step to turning these entries into essays and maybe some books about my years of homeschooling my kids and homesteading and everything we learned. 

If you are interested in writing, be sure and sign up for the summit, It runs from February 26 to March 4^th. It’s all online and free to watch during the week. There is an upgrade package if you want to buy the summit to re-watch later plus you get some of Stacy’s bonuses and the giveaway. 

Click here to go straight to the signup page for the Life Story Summit

Notebooks for Life Story Writing . . .

I made 2 new notebooks just for the summit. You can use them to take notes in or start your life stories while you watch the summit. 

Stacy is putting them in a giveaway for the summit. But if you want yours now, you can order them here:

Life Storyteller—You’re Never Going to Believe This…A Notebook to Write Your Life Story

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Fiction! A Life Storyteller Spills the Beans: A Notebook to Write Your Life Story

Interesting Things This Week . . .

What I’m watching . . .

I watched The Dig on Netflix. The movie is set at the Sutton Hoo site in Suffolk, England. It’s based on the true story of Basil Brown when he excavated an Anglo-Saxon ship on Edith Pretty’s property in 1939. I thought it was fascinating how they did all of it by hand.

The British Museum a page on their blog on how the movie compares to the historical excavation. Click here to read their blog post. 

Here’s the trailer for The Dig

What I’m learning . . .

I like learning how things ‘used to be done’. And another interesting find this week is a video by Mary Weahkee where she shows how to make a turkey feather blanket. She talks about the history of how the Navaho got the turkeys from the Aztecs, and shows step by step how to make the yucca cordage and then how to twine the feathers on to it. I learned how to make yucca cordage years ago, and she showed a technique I hadn’t learned yet. 

She also gave some interesting facts about the turkey—that they are the only bird that you can pluck their feathers and they don’t bleed to death. Other birds will and I had no idea! 

You can watch her video here

What I’m reading . . .

I am rereading Jean M Auel’s book The Clan of the Cave Bear. I read the series years ago and learned how to do a few skills she wrote about. I made a sling from the wool I was spinning and my son and I practiced slinging rocks against targets on our daily hikes in the pasture. There were a lot of skills I wanted to learn but didn’t have time to focus on them. We were so busy with homeschooling and homesteading.

Now, I want to try something different—I’m going to journal The Clan of the Cave Bear. I have been highlighting the passages I want to come back to and make some journal pages for herbs mentioned and how they were prepared and used. And other skills I’d like to learn. I’m also going to add in ways the author wrote sentences I liked that I can study to help me with my own writing. 

What’s your favorite book you’d like to journal to? Hit reply and let me know!

What hobbies / skills do you enjoy? If you’re looking to start a new hobby, you can find a list here

The Frugalite’s Guide to Productive Hobbies

Nature Journal Prompt . . .

Do a nature journal entry about the picture above. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the name of the bird. What details are you noticing? Softly gaze at the bird, and then draw the details you remember without looking back at the picture until you are done. How many details did you remember? What did you miss?

Journal Prompt . . .

What are your 3 favorite books of all time? Is there something similar, like a main theme, that runs through all three? Journal how this reflects or resonates with something in your inner landscape.

Quote I’m pondering . . .

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

—Albert Einstein

Happy Journaling!

Shanna

P.S. Did you sign up for the Life Story Summit? Click here

Links

Shanna Lea Author website
Books on Amazon
Magic Heron Creations Notebooks on Amazon
Magic Heron Creations Etsy Shop

. . . Shanna Lea Author

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