Treehouse Secrets Issue 1 by Treehouse Secrets

December 2009 ISSUE 1

Contents 3.

Feature Story Families Experience through Reading

Wanna learn to Juggle?

Share a Play Memory… Share your happy thoughts with us

TSM Book Review

connect – with self, family, friends and community play – to set your imagination free laugh – to feed your soul share – with each other to connect

Dreamstarter

Solutions Tantrums are not the End of the World

Thank You for Subscribing to TSM Magazine.

Treehouse Culture

We intend to help you use Play-Culture in your everyday life and hope to stimulate your imaginations with all things possible.

Sir Ken Robinson Creativity Expert

Ordinary People doing the Extraordinary Catherine Bolt – Indonesian Orphanage Project

Gotta go to Family Spots Fairy Park – as much for boys as for girls (grown ups too)

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This magazine has been produced in the spirit of Treehouse Secrets as a hub of information that supports everything imaginative. We look forward to your collaboration and contributions to help grow a culture that will not only inspire all that read it but helps you to be inspirational to others.

Wassup @ Treehouse Secrets? Follow our trek from imagination to reality, we need your help…

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Welcome to TSM 1st Issue

Competition Page Creative Quotes

Creating ripples of goodness that will overflow into the mainstream for the betterment of humanity. If TSM can create awareness and facilitate you in any way, hopefully you will pursue your element and assist those around you in doing the same. Looking forward to connecting with you, Tracey Smythe Imagineer www.treehousesecrets.com tracey@treehousesecrets.com Phone: Australia 0427664862 232

Experience Family Experiences Creating memories – one of the best ways to create memories is to be a story family. If you’re not, it’s time to start now. No matter if your family is older or younger, start now and you will be embarking on an enriching experience. It’s a great saying ‘the best things in life are free.’

When my boys got to the age that they no longer required my assistance to read anymore, I was so caught up in the perception that I was busy, that I left them to it. We lapsed into watching TV and videos for entertainment, before I even noticed, we’d shut each other out and hardly talked to each other.

Family story time will provide a platform for sharing, connecting, knowing each other and interaction.

‘I promise you an enriching experience!’

Now, I can’t get that time back and I can’t recreate that time; but I can share it with you. Are they worse off for it? Not that I can tell but I know I’ve missed that window of time to create wonderful memories. So be proactive and seize the opportunity to create half an hour on weeknights and get into it. Choose your stories wisely, as this time is precious. Don’t be badgered into reading everything you’re given by family and friends. Pick books with great characters that you’d like to be around or have around, as you could spend time three dimensionally in their presence if your child really loves them, does Bart conjure up what I’m trying to get across here? Pick age appropriate books and books you really like too, because you may find yourself reading it again and again and again and, you know what I mean. It’s important for you to enjoy yourself and be enthusiastic, as these are wonderfully contagious attitudes to share. To keep a book fresh, focus on different features each time you share it like the illustrations, ask ‘what if’ questions and see what different outcomes surface, act out the story, do it in different

accents, there are lots of different ways to keep the same story fresh, get the picture? Make sure all the grown ups get involved. Delight in hearing your kids tell dad, ‘that’s not the way mum tells it’ and how Nana or Pop end up wondering off the written story and start sharing their own stories. Older siblings will delight in being grown up enough to be the lead reader and don’t forget to incorporate your pets were ever possible (sometimes I change the names to match ours). The local libraries these days are incredible. They stock books, audio books, magazines, DVD’s and most have storytelling sessions all for FREE! Try to make it a regular outing, share your childhood favourites with your kids, find holiday books and go on imaginary trips together, drool over cookbooks or even give the recipes a try or check out books on mythology and peer through your fingers at the spooky pictures – you won’t regret it.

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Let your children see you buy books for gifts like for anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions. If your daughter, like mine is besotted with Twilight, give her Bella’s favourite books – the complete works of Jane Austen.

“You could make a family pact to read the book before seeing the movie.”

How to Make your own Juggling Balls Things You'll Need: Balloons Rice (uncooked) Scissors Juice bottle Funnel Measuring cup

This is great for encouraging family discussions, both before and after the movie. You can search on sites like www.chasingthefrog.com/books/movie-books.php for lists of books that are being released as movies and plan the year ahead and not miss out. It’s amazing watching teens realise that no matter how wonderful a movie is, it never is quite as good as what the book is. Proving the power of our imaginations and how they soar. Don’t forget audio books, they can be listened to whilst doing other things like driving in the car or out in the garden. I didn’t discover reading until my thirties and that’s a lot of books to catch up on. Reading has a trillion benefits and is probably one of the reasons I struggled at school (as well as a million other reasons). Here are some of the listed benefits: broadens vocabulary,  ability to understand context and decipher meanings,  sequencing as stories have a logical course of events,  creativity as visualisation enhances creative skills,  attentiveness as children are keen to hear what’s coming next,  absorbing great amounts of information,  wider variety of verbal and intellectual skills  and massive amounts of JOY.

Step 1. For each ball, you'll need 3/4 cup rice. You will need enough rice for 3 balls.

Step 2. Place the funnel over the bottle and pour 3/4 cup rice into the bottle.

Step 3. Blow up the balloon to slightly larger than juggling ball size. A diameter of 4 inches is ideal. Pinch the balloon opening to trap the air.

Step 4. Stretch the balloon opening over the bottle, being careful not to release too much air.

Step 5. Turn the bottle over so all the rice pours into the balloon.

Step 6. Take the balloon off the bottle. Let the balloon deflate so that it clasps to the rice, forming a ball. Do this while the bottle is still upside down, so the rice doesn't get everywhere.

Step 7. Cut off the balloon neck. Again, be careful. You don't want rice spilling out of the hole. (maybe over a bowl)

Step 8. Cut holes in 2 more balloons. You'll want to cut right below the neck (so the entire neck plus the upper portion of the balloon body is severed). This will create a big-enough hole to stretch over the rice balloon.

Step 9. Line up the hole on the rice balloon with the bigger hole you cut in the second balloon. Stretch the second balloon over the hole in the rice balloon, so it's tight.

Step 10.

$6 in your pocket

Flip the ball, and stretch the third balloon over the first 2. Make sure your ball is no more than 2 balloons thick at any point. Think of the second and third balloons as a single cover for the initial rice balloon. They shouldn't overlap. That'll just make the juggling clunky.

3 – 5 year old boys gift pack

Step 11.

10% off until 14/12/09

Step 12.

(enter code: issue 1) www.treehousesecrets.com

Repeat until you have at least 3 juggling balls. Go to the following site and practice with this lesson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCt1bmSASCI&feature=fv st

PERSISTANCE IS THE KEY.

TSM Book Review Share a Play Memory… “I had this fabulous pretend restaurant at my Nana’s. It was her old home bar and it stood next to the laundry outhouse, very authentic looking French café, if my memory serves me correctly.” We would decide on the daily menu and then I’d have to chalk it up on the blackboard in coloured chalk. Then I’d pull out my order pad and assist each table with their orders. Back in the kitchen (laundry) Nana and I would make up every order with the freshest, finest plasticine. Each plate would be dished up with loving care and look just like the real thing. I remember having very happy customers that regularly attended our café. My Poppa knew I was a curious soul and he would often return home from the tip with old radios and stereos. He would then bring them to me - the fixer upperer for repairs. I got to pull them to itsy bitsy pieces. I loved thinking I knew how everything worked. I didn’t of course because I never actually learnt how things went back together, but boy do I know how to pull things to bits. These are some of my play memories with my grandparents. It is so important to create memories, whether they were conscious of that or not. Make it a choice and start creating play memories today.

Nothing is more wonderful than the endless possibilities of your own child’s imagination. That’s why you need to know about The Dreamstarter Book and its website www.dreamstarter.net. This book will jump start yours and your child’s imagination and excite you both as you’ll become the storytellers. Jennifer Karin Sidford presents you with fifty exciting story beginnings and a suggestion page on how to get the imagination fired up. Then it is up to you guys to dream up endless possibilities and grow the story any which way you want. Jennifer has constructed wonderful, intricate, descriptive beginnings that have you sitting on the edge of your seat to hear what comes next….then the narration stops and at first it takes just a little prompting and getting used to, then you find your budding story teller enhancing and developing their own masterpiece of storytelling. I’d recommend the book for five plus as it is the type of book you can grow with. It can be enjoyed in car trips, holidays, sleepovers and parties or used by teachers, baby sitters, carers and alike, if I had my way everyone would have a copy. The Dreamstarter Book takes a little practice at first, just to get the flow happening, but you’ll observe with each read that your storyteller becomes a little more inventive and you will notice just what a practical tool this book is at growing your child’s imagination (not to mention your own). My delight only grew when I checked out www.dreamstarter.net and found a truly amazing site that encapsulates the concept as a whole. The site is more for seven plus and well worth the interaction. Dreamstarter will create your child’s own Birthday Dreamstarter Story for FREE. So go ahead and knock!

Get started with Dreamstarter.

Please share your childhood play memories with us here at Treehouse Secrets Magazine; we’d love to share with us. Email us at tracey@treehousesecrets.com

There are skills to share that show you

‘Tantrums are not the End of the World’

Tantrums are a normal manifestation of frustration; every child will have one (at least). They come in varying degrees of loudness, physicality, length and repetition. There are two basic types of tantrums 1. Frustration and 2. Manipulation and both are treated very differently. Frustration – Is common and we can all empathise with not being able to do or have something we want. It is important to use these emotional outbursts as an opportunity to bond with your little conqueror. The greatest gift you can share with your child is speech, arm her with words to describe her feelings, it will take a while but she will get to a stage of telling you what gets her blood pressure pumping. Pick your moments to stand your ground wisely, if she says pink shirt and you say blue (to match the rest of that fabulous outfit you were coordinating), does it really matter? Let her have her independence, or when she orders ‘I’ll do it’ and starts to get tempered cause it just wont do what she wants, lend a guiding hand and assure her ‘all will be right’, but let her finish the task. Offer independent things for her to do, grown up things you usually hurry through, take the time to assist her but let her feel in charge, it is very empowering for her to be instrumental in her daily routine. Manipulative – This tantrum is evolutionary, it’s not taught or learned it’s innate. And before you know it, it escalates to uncontrollable. This is where you get to strengthen your parenting skills. Stay calm, remember to stay focused on your child and ignore your surroundings (unless you’re in the middle of tram tracks). Calmly and firmly tell him ‘You are safe and I can see you’re upset, I’ll be here when you’re ready to calm down and talk.’ Then stand clear and let him go for it. You cannot reason with him, you should only attempt to move him if he is of a danger to himself or obstructing somebody else.

“Do not worry what anyone else thinks. Majority of us have been there and if they haven’t, it will all be over before you know it and you’ll never see them again anyway. “ I blame the supermarket checkouts, they are designed to torment children and test parent’s sanity. It is the ideal spot for a tantrum to step in and possess your usually adorable ray of sunshine and turn her into a demon of apocalyptic proportion. Complete with supersonic, ear shattering, teeth jarring screams that pierce the air. The kicking, hitting, breathe holding, head banging, uncontrollable eruption makes you want to run away and join a nunnery, never to entertain the ideal of giving birth again.

Be firm in both types of tantrums, if you weigh up the situation and decide that what you rule is golden, and then change your mind thinking it will stop the tantrum. This confusion is only inviting more tantrums in the future. This is a valuable point; if you are going to buckle, do it before you declare your rule. This means that some things are not worth the frustration for either of you. But if you do have to endure the angst of the tantrum remember they are normal, your child is not demonic and will outgrow them if you adhere to this advice.

There is a better way. Seize the moment (or several minutes) and treat the tantrum as an opportunity for self-education, selfdiscipline, to test your parenting skills and your ability to survive and remain rational.

If tantrums are too common, you may need to keep a tantrum journal. List triggers, times of day, empty tummy, place of event, lack of sleep and it will become evident in a short time what is setting your child off. Then you’ll need to plan your day around those triggers.

“It is up to you to stay in control of you. Ignore where you are and who’s looking and stay focused on your temporary misplaced bundle of joy.”

Remember to use words too after the tantrum, as this will help with future dialogue. Berating your child will damage their self-esteem and add to their feeling of guilt, use reassuring body language and comments like "You did it, you managed to take control. Good for you."

Understand this; tantrums are not a personal attack on you (it just feels that way). If you become anxious, scream or physical you will validate all those behaviours and they have no place when a tantrum occurs.

Although I think the supermarket check out is an exceptional permanent trigger sent to test us all.

Are you living in your Element? I’d like to introduce you to Sir Ken Robinson if you have not had the pleasure previously. Sir Ken is a Creativity Expert who consistently works towards reforming our current educational systems and the following is an edited interview where he shares with us why. Sir Ken and Treehouse Secrets share a path in that we aim to facilitate humanity with what it needs to tap into its creative imaginations, inspiring people to be the best at what they choose to be. Enjoy….

“Education should be about developing people’s natural abilities and yet in many cases it divorces people form the very talents that excite them.” “Our schooling systems were invented in the 18th and 19th centuries to meet the needs of the Industrial Economy. In many ways they are based on the principles of industrialism. They function on linear processes of planning, it’s like a production line, it’s about conformity, and it’s about educating people in batches. School systems have become kind of impoverished, as they’ve gotten older. So, I really plan to revitalise them. When I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s there was an expectation of what your working life might be like. It shaped our education systems as about 80% of people in the industrial economy were doing manual labour work.” “It’s clear that current education systems don’t connect with the way kids learn, how they think or who they really are. So, a big piece of this for me is giving people back to themselves, giving them access to their own talents. I am convinced the more that people are in their element the more successful they become, because it is literally transformative to themselves and their own world.” “The whole world in shifting on its axis, particularly through the growth of new technology and the huge growth in population around the world and what we might do about it. There is an Economic revolution happening, the only way we can contend with this is by having a much richer and much more acute sense of human capacity and we should be developing all of our talent.” “The good news is we can do that, we know how to do that and the best way to prepare our kids for the future is to have them firing on all cylinders. To really know what they are good at and be confident that they can do that. To lead by being creative, it’s about habits and habitats. The more we do the same thing day in day out, the more we think the same way.” “Do things differently, stimulate your imagination by doing things you wouldn’t normally do. Speak to the people in your building that you’ve never spoken to before, go to work a different way, go to the opera, footy, boating, play ping-pong, jump a skipping rope, hula a hoop. Open your mind to new possibilities and new experiences. Being creative may mean

finding new ways of expressing yourself and the people who achieve the most have found their medium, they’re in their element and they love the thing that they do. Open yourself to things you take for granted.” “How we think and how well we think is influenced by the environment we live in, work in, the way we configure the desk, the building and how we relate to each other. Redesigning your office space, your home layout and redesigning the physical relationships between you and other people can have a huge liberating effect on your whole creative capacity.” “The thing is if you are a leader, if you run a country, a company, a family or a school, you can’t make people develop, you can’t make them creative, you can’t make them find their talent. Anymore than a farmer can make a plant grow, the plant grows itself. What you do is you provide the ideal condition for growth. You create different social climates, institutional climates, where people give it their best and become their best.”

“It’s what I believe great leaders do, they understand the optimum conditions for growth.” “Education ideally would have interdisciplinary sessions were you would learn math through theatre and you would apply math as a way of enhancing dance for example. Creating a dynamic curriculum that is more broadly based, more tailored to your particular interests that catered to your different talents and abilities. You should be allowed to focus on them, as it would be far more interactive. Also inter-age learning as individuals progress individually, and I think more adults should be involved in education. The good news is it’s not a theory. You find schools like this all over the world, really good schools, which are out performing conventional schools in almost every way.”

If you have enjoyed our brief interlude with Sir Ken Robinson then check out his genuinely funny and informative presentation at TED http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4964296663335083307 and have a look at other things on TED also, it’s a fantastic look at what people are doing about the future of our planet. Sir Ken’s latest book is The Element if you truly want to implement change in your life, find your element and allow those around you to find theirs. 7

Project Overview “My name is Catherine Bolt. My husband and I have a blended family of 9 children – 8 boys and 1 girl – aged 2.5 to 18 who, to us, are the meaning of life.”

We live organically on a mountain in the beautiful Sunshine Coast of QLD, Australia and run a sustainable living and alternate therapies website called The Elements at Eumundi www.lifestylesanctuary.com.au, 50% of the profits go to fund the Indonesian orphanage project. After a lifetime of creativity I am finally comfortable in calling myself an artist, please feel free to check out my photography portfolio. 100% of the profits go to the Indonesian orphanage project. Whilst I don’t feel I deserve to call myself a Buddhist just yet, I try to live by the basic principals of Buddhism as much as possible.

About the Indonesian Orphanage/Wildlife Refuge Project Every night 1.8 million children in Indonesia sleep homeless. For most of us that number is unfathomable. Over 50% of Indonesians survive on less than $2US per day. Of the 500,000 children in Indonesian orphanages today, almost 90% still have a living parent. They just simply cannot afford to feed them and out of desperation, many of these children are dumped in hope that someone more fortunate may be able to give them a better life.

“EVERYONE has the power to make some change in the world.” Well, I am someone more fortunate and while my family is not wealthy, by any means, we plan to make a difference. In a country like Indonesia where so many people are so very poor, a lot can be achieved with less money than one might expect. We are ordinary people, living an ordinary life – we are no different to you. I don’t expect everyone to give up everything. I don’t expect everyone to build an orphanage. But EVERYONE can do something. Whether you donate to our project, or one of the dozens of other aid agencies, whether you just extend the hand of friendship to a colleague or stranger or whether you just take a “man in the mirror” moment and be the change that you want to see in the world.

Orphanage/Village – The plan is to establish an orphanage on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. When complete the village will consist of 18 x 3 bedroom homes, each housing up to 8 children and a housemother. The system is based on effective plans in Africa, where the children are raised in a loving family environment, rather than in huge dormitories with 40+ children to a room. An investigation into the conditions in Indonesian orphanages in 2007 showed that most “childcare institutions” in Indo did not consider the emotional wellbeing of the children to be the responsibility of the institution. The first stage of the orphanage will consist of 4 cabins, increasing to 10 and then 18 over 5 years. The village will also include a school, community centre including a medical centre, and a staff residence. The orphanage will be built using sustainable methods using the principals of solar passive design. The entire village will also be solar powered with rainwater collection. We hope to be able to employ local people for the construction and offer long term employment to some of those men for building maintenance and village expansion over the coming years. It is our hope that we will be able to place the first children at the village in early 2011.

Outreach Program – Given the number of children who end up in these institutions due to their families desperation for them to have a better life, we plan to run an outreach program which means approaching smaller villages with less prospects, liaising with the community and through consultation with their local authorities building them a school, we would then provide schooling for the village children, and one meal per day. We believe this would eradicate the need for the families in these villages to abandon their children, and lessen the burden on the already overflowing orphanages. We would also be able to offer medical assistance to those in need through the orphanage medical centre. Wildlife Refuge & Reforestation program – I’m sure you’re aware of the dire situation in Indonesia at this given time due to the deforestation of the native habit for the local wildlife. This has seen the rapid decline in species such as the Sumatran Tiger and the Orang-utan over recent years. Our program intends to include a conservation program, whereby each child who schools with us will have wildlife conservation as a key-learning outcome, and the children will be able to participate in a refuge program for displaced animals. We hope that by getting these children up-close and personal with this amazing wildlife, and instilling an understanding or the importance of wildlife conservation they will be more inclined to carry that with them into their future lives. In the short term, we would envisage providing refuge primarily for orphaned & injured orang-utans, possibly extending to include other animals in future. Eventually we would like to be able to buy up some of the land which has been destroyed by palm oil plantations, and commence a reforestation program to expand the corridors of native habitat that are remaining. 8

We will be negotiating with existing programs to offer a support role to them using our land and resources, as this is not our area of expertise and we will need direction from those established.

decent stall at the Eumundi Markets by summer (hopefully mid-late October) continuing indefinitely. Long term we plan to start a sponsorship program – as the major foreign aid agencies do.

Funding for the Project Look out for charity events in 2010! We are counting on the kindness and generosity of the greater community to raise a large percentage of the money required for this ambitious project. I have also started a program which will be continued by the house mothers in the village to raise a residual income to maintain the program – this is recycling unused/unwanted clothing and fabric items and making them into saleable fashion and homeware items, such as bags, placemats, quilts, aprons, pillow covers etc. We are also making wedding items from donated wedding dresses (including my own). I should have enough stock made up for a

The donation of goods & services will lessen the need for cash donations and we are gratefully accepting these also. Please visit www.catherinebolt.com and click on the ‘How to Help’ button.

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your imaginations to be involved as much as you choose to be. Our performers will share an adventure with you that will live on in your memory as the ‘Experience that had to be had, to Believe.’ Let us take you back to a childhood of make believe, where anything was possible. Or let us show your children what it can be like to let their creative imaginations run free.

Wassup @ Treehouse Secrets? After two years in development, Treehouse Secrets are now in a position to take this well planned concept to the investors to seek funding. Our brand of entertainment is the first of its type and we plan to be the innovators in this new industry. We are bringing theatre back to the people in a way not experienced before. Treehouse Secrets provides quality, immersive entertainment in an array of sensory environments that facilitate

Treehouse Secrets Attraction plans to be open in Surfers Paradise QLD, Australia by November 2010. This will be the only attraction in Australia, although the success of this attraction will guarantee that a restructured community based Treehouse Secrets will be opening in locations around the major metropolitan areas of Australia and eventually around the global village. Creating a new commercial platform for Performers to work in their element. An industry that is people driven creating jobs for creatives. Finally there will be family entertainment that’s appealing to everyone of every age to enjoy together. Stay tuned and we’ll update you of our plight as it happens and we would be grateful if you could go to www.treehousesecrets.com and fill in the survey that will help to bring Treehouse Secrets into reality. Tracey Smythe Imagineer

‘Gotta go to Family Spot’

Now, some may shrug at the name and say I’m too old for Fairytales or a Fairy Park, but this Fairy Park at Anakie, Victoria, Australia is soooo much more. I’ve been a regular visitor over the last twenty years and the attraction recently went through a much-loved renovation that saw the place brought into a new era. Drive about 40 minutes west of Werribee, towards the west, and a volcanic rock appears with a castle sitting atop of it, then you will realise you have arrived at Fairy Park. Prepare for a fairytale experience that the whole family will enjoy. From the car park at the base of the rock your journey starts. Following the yellow brick path that is full of hidden surprises for you to discover, you come across 22 favourite fairytale themed cottages, castles and cave that come to life. At the summit of the rock a breathtaking view awaits you, not to mention the stunning gardens and water features set amongst the natural boulders that bulge abundant on your journey to the summit and down. The paths are well planned and make the journey accessible to all ages. There is no shortage of facilities back at the car park – bbq’s, picnic tables, undercover kiosk, toilets and the brilliant playground, Camelot. With all the new wonderful playgrounds available today, Camelot is still my favourite. Beware the Knight in the tower waiting to spray the unexpected with water. Explore secret passages and tunnel mazes of this medieval playground. Climb daring towers, creep through darkest dungeons, rescue damsels in distress, but beware of Merlin and his magic tricks! Mystical creatures, a carousel ride, giant slide and things that turn ‘n spin will keep both parents and kids busy for hours. Be totally awestruck by this amazing creation and enjoy Australia's most unique playground. This is a full day of top quality, immersed entertainment that transports you to a magical place, a brilliant backdrop for photos galore. Be sure to take water bottles and hat each for the walk as summer can get pretty warm there and wear plenty of sunscreen with extra to last you the whole day.

For General Enquiries & Bookings Call: (03) 5284 1262 or email: info@fairypark.com 2388 Ballan Road Anakie 3221 Victoria, Australia. www.fairypark.com - quite magical! Their site answers all your questions 10

Please understand that the winner’s photo will be used in the next issue.

The lucky winner will win a

Let’s get Musical Email us a photograph of your child displaying their most creative finger painting. Competition is open to 3 – 5 year olds. Include your child’s name and D.O.B and your contact details. Closes December 15th, 2009.

**Winner will be a random choice from submissions at the discretion of Treehouse Secrets and we expect you to let

QUOTE CORNER The Storyteller’s Creed - I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, inspire, motivate, and challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story. Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger. Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

Gift Pack from Treehouse Secrets Winner notified by email and delivery arranged.

your children know this is not the perceived best painting.

Australian Aborigines say that the big stories, the stories worth telling and retelling, the ones in which you may find the meaning of your life are forever stalking the right teller, sniffing and tracking like predators hunting their prey in the bush. It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story. —Native American saying If stories come to you, care for them and learn t to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. ‘Thou shalt not’ is soon forgotten, but ‘Once upon a time’ lasts forever. You have to understand that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story. 11.