The stories we remembered and relived have been tucked away within our hearts, rarely spoken of again, yet never forgotten. Since initiating this process, I've been asked to tell stories at other Rites of Passage into adulthood. I see part of my role as storyteller to be present to such rituals, to help people form them, to encourage them to assume the familial and community power to enact these rituals of re-membering as a way to go on with life. They are sponsored by Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic at Minneapolis Children's Medical Center. The clinic sees imagination as an important skill necessary to help children cope with or master illness.
Children learn to regulate their bodies by creating images.
Biofeedback and the teaching of self- hypnosis are tools for the children. Their images can be fed and nourished by stories. She learns to visualize herself feeling better and coaxing her body's immune system to help fight her illness. When I began to work with children in the hospital, I told them stories, played games, got them to tell stories and tried to deepen my understanding of how their imaginations worked. They told me many things.