A Transition Tale

Once, upon our times, in a town that was not too big and not too small, where a man called Rob has settled to share his vision of a transition future, there lived a storyteller who decided she wanted to create a collection of Transition Tales. To co-create these tales she would walk out of the town that was not too big and not too small, at around the time of the Spring Equinox, to visit 13 other places, use her storytelling to work with the inhabitants to create the tale of their town, village or city, neighbourhood, school, university, or estate, and return home to harvest a book of tales at the time of the Autumn Equinox.

So the wise networker of all networkers Ben White Raven caused it to happen that folk far and wide knew of the journey she would make. And Rob of the Great Renown caused her to be presented with a mysterious non edible blackberry, saying it would come in handy one day. And she planned to meet the good folk of Scotland for a transition gathering at the Appleby fair at the Summer Solstice and to skirt the border of Wales to share a Lammas feast with Welsh transitioners.

Now to complete this task she had to ask for some help. What she needed were kindly transition hosts around the land to provide a place to rest her head each night, a quiet corner with a table at which she could work, and a storytelling place of local renown in which she could share her craft and co-create a tale of the place. She also caused it to be known that she would eat only that which was local, seasonal, and caused no harm to any.

And as news of the journey spread the thirteen kindly hosts gathered folk to greet the storyteller as she entered their region, to help co–create their tale. They gathered those folk along the way who had a story to tell too, And then news got out from whence she would come, on foot, accompanied by those companions who shared her love of feet on the ground and a good story. And soon there was a merry band enjoying the peace and quiet of the green lanes that once had linked all our settlements together before the coming of the large heavy noisy metal boxes that now carried goods and people far and wide, and who, in exchange, guzzled oil and spewed out noxious breath.

And as Transition Tales arrived at each of the 13 places, some local people made a donation to help pay for the hire of the venue. And as Transition Tales left, they took with them a gift of the town made by a local craftsperson to present to the winner of the donations raffle of the next place that hosted them. And so it was that the storyteller set out not only to gather the tales of 13 transition places, but also to hear the tales of the herbalists, crafts folk, storytellers young and old that she met along the way. And in doing so, she helped re-open more of the ways that once connected us to our neighbours and our lands

Wynn Alice hoped that in the collecting of the tales more people would become storytellers, more tales would be created, and Transition Tales would be told in all the places of the land.

http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/transition-tales-2...

And what happened next would be another tale for another time.

If you would like to get involved in the Transition Tales 2010 Quest see “How to get Involved” below.

Or Contact transitiontales@googlemail.com