Our Guild is a garden

From TMAS June 2007
This excellent piece was written by an honoured member of the Victoria Storytellers Guild, Marie Burgess. Marie writes; "It is such an appropriate story for the guild, created at a time of stress and lack of energy in the guild years ago to help create a more cooperative approach at that time." Certainly, this is an inspiring story that has become a real part of our Guild history. Al



Our guild is a garden. It has permanent plantings.

Our newsletter and web page are birches that wave their branches in the breeze to catch members’ attention. Our Fern Street meetings and our Rootcellar are oaks that support and spread the joy of storytelling.

Some members are the many leaves in our garden. Whispering birch and fine blades of grass listen and compliment all those different flowers and trees. Without this audience the garden would be incomplete. Our audiences reflect our stories in all their varied hues.

In our garden we have all the flowers. Big showy flowers: stories and tellers that everyone knows and admires. Smaller, quieter flowers: that have one or two quiet blooms that surprise us and we marvel at.

And there is the vegetable garden. These stories are the ones that we hope will earn us recognition in the community of dollars for fundraising. Some members try to make a living from this part of the garden.

There is a shed in our garden. In this you will find tools that are for the necessary, often unnoticed, work of the guild. Membership, treasurer, mail-out, business meetings, scheduler, policies, the list goes on. Our tools have to be sharp and orderly, cared for in order to do the best job that can be done in our garden.

But the best tools will be no avail without heart and soul. And the heart and soul of our garden is the rich fertile soil and the clear sibilant water. Rich and fertile soil comes from our compost. Our gardens stir it lovingly; giving it time to reflect the heat and knowledge within. Then it is spread out amongst the flowers and trees and vegetables to enrich and make more stories grow. Water is necessary for our plant’s survival. It attracts the birds that whistle to the world what wonderful stories we tell. They are our publicity and our inspiration.

There are weeds in our garden. Problems that we have to work together to overcome. Some are easily removed. Some have long roots and keep returning. Mixed together with these are seeds that we nurture: new tellers who we coach along.

There are visitors to our garden. Some will see the weeds. Some will notice the soil. Some will ask if they can stir the compost. Many will just admire our flowers.

Our garden is a beautiful place when all the elements balance: when we gardeners work to create a beautiful atmosphere; when we strive to acknowledge every gardener’s part, when we work in harmony.

The best gardens require much work with many gardeners working together to create the most complete vision of our art.

We are our guild. We are our garden.