Ep 3. 'A Wee Lift' with Liz Weir

Welcome to Tales for Our Times. I am your host, Dougie McKay, professional storyteller, based here in the mystical heartlands of Scotland. In this podcast, we will explore the role of folk culture, myths, legends and storytelling in the creation of a better world. As well as sharing my favourite Tales for Telling, I'll be interviewing some of the finest storytellers change-makers, rebels and poets, inspiring people bringing their creative gifts to respond to the complexities and turbulence of these times. How can storytelling support the great turning as we shift from a culture-focused, only on growth and consumption to one that is regenerative, creative and supportive of life on this planet? Grab yourselves a broom, throw another peat in the imaginal hearthfire and watch the flames dance as we dream a better world into being. All of it, starting once upon a time. This week I'm joined by Liz Weir, who is a storytelling elder, a mentor to many emerging storytellers over the years. And a real force of nature over there in the north of Ireland. Good morning, Liz. Thanks for joining us here. Pleasure to be here, Dougie. And I mean, you know, as we would say, a well-kent face on the storytelling scene. I think there would be few people within the storytelling circles that don't know you. But maybe you could help introduce us to start with where in the world you are. And yeah, describe your little patch of the planet to us. Okay. So I live outside the village of Cresciendol. It's the northeast corner of Ireland. I'm actually 17 miles from Scotland. Five miles from the coast. About 40 miles north of Belfast. So I'm in a very rural area. The time land is called Partmore, which means big field. And around me, there are fields and sheep used to be a forest that have cut it down and replant it at night. And so that's where I am. I have grown up in the nearby town of Balamina, which is 12 miles away. I've lived here all my life apart from being away at college in Belfast, which was only 40 miles away. So I'm homegrown, although where I'm living now is very different from the time I grew up in. It's very rural. It's very Irish, whereas Balamina will be very British. I'm totally at home here. And here I have tourist hostel and self-catering accommodation. So I'm very much, I've got my roots down here now. Great. And because I obviously came and visited you recently and I was, I was really struck by a number of different things at a great time coming to visit. And I was, I guess one thing that struck me was how much the people in Antrim seemed to love the Glens of Antrim. And there's no denying its beauty, there's no denying there's a lot of lore, there were great people. What is it that's particularly special about that part of the world to you? It has been two things, parallel. The landscape, obviously you've referred to, we've got the beautiful glens, we've got waterfalls, rolling hills, but we've also, it's the people. They're very outgoing, they're very friendly, they have a lot of knowledge about local folklore, music is very strong here. And they're very proud of where they live. I think there's a pride in the community. And from my point of view coming in, I've been here 20 years, but I'm still low in. There's a very strong sense of community support. So I think that's what it is as well. And it has its own sort of integrity. The Glens of Antrim is a sort of a known tourist destination I. Great, so we'll touch on some of those different points, the people, the community work, your background, storytelling, maybe a little bit about the landscape. One thing you said in your introduction was that you're, is it 12 miles from Scotland? 17. 17, 12 from five from the coast, and that's 12 across Scotland. And I was amazed when I came and visited how often I was looking back at Scotland. The daily Easter was gazing back at Scotland, and I really hadn't expected that. Well, either we're part of the ancient kingdom of Dalrieta, or we call it the Dalriata, but Dalriata would be. So we're all part of one kingdom. So we across, we across at the Mall of Canter, the city island of Santa, you can actually see on a clear day over to the Paps of Jura. So we have local guys who go across in rems and so on, new with ski jurors and that sort of thing. So we're very linked. And even when I go to Dublin and say, and I said to children, where do you think I'm from, they all say Scotland, because our accent would be more Scottish than it would be Dublin, you know, those workers. Yeah, no, it's really enjoyed seeing that. And obviously, there is a lot of shared culture. And I wondered if you might, from someone who spent a lot of time in Scotland and over there, if you could pick things that are shared about the culture and also what the differences are between on either side of the water. Shared would be a cage tradition. I mean, I've had many as a good cage and out of sky or David Campbell's in Edinburgh, where people get together and share stories and music and sometimes alcohol even, but on occasion. And it's just a lovely warm atmosphere. So I think there's that to it. I think there's a readiness that people will talk to you. You know, you get on a bus and Glasgow and let people talk to you. It's not, I've seen me get on to Cheney London, send us this chain, go to, and people just look at you as if you've got two heads. Whereas the Scotlander and Ireland people were practically taking you to show you where to go to, the company you knew, if you didn't stop them. So I think that's similar. Different, I know the difference is people are people. Obviously, there's many shared tales. You hear of Finstories, the Vienna, you'll hear the similar sorts of stories and many of the Scottish stories have Irish parallels as well. So I don't really know, but the difference is just people are different. And again, there's a big difference between urban Scotland and rural Scotland, you know, it's the same as Belfast in here in the good end. So that's, I can't really give you a very good answer on that, but I think just the warmth of people, I think, is very similar. We've always have an affinity. I mean, the tally hookers used to come over to gather sponsor here. People used to come over and work here. Lots of people used to come from Scotland on their holidays here, pre the Northern Ireland troubles. And again, there's always been a strong tradition of us going to Scotland as well. So I think, I mean, the people here in the lands used to do their shopping in Scotland before the coast road was built, before the inland roads were built. It was easier for them to take a boat across to Scotland than to travel here used to do that. And you'll see in the graveyard, my colleagues, McDonald's, all the old names are shared Scottish Irish names, the callisters of big name here. Yeah, and certainly, yeah, a lot of shared history, culture, and yeah, that, that, as we'd call it, blebbering, that willingness to blebber and talk, that's something I've really appreciated in my times coming across the water. And kind of puts me in mind of a few years ago, when I actually went as far as Galway. And I thought, I'll just go out for a pint. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. I got welcomed in by this group, joined them for the night. And the next day, even though I had a hideous hangover, I spent the whole day blebbering. You know, I'd go into one shop, yeah, yeah, the next shop, yeah. And I was like, this is, this is remarkable. And I can't, I enjoy it. But it was really like, it was like Scotland times 10 with the willingness of people to actually sit and talk. And it was so refreshing. I think as someone from Scotland, I recognise it, but it felt much freer across the water. Do you not think about Northern Ireland as well? For years during the troubles, we didn't get that many people coming here. And so we get people now. We love to have them. We have to show them what a good place it is. I think we're so appreciative of people who come. I mean, obviously Northern Ireland's a vibrant place to live now, but we just still love to get people here. Yeah, yeah, now I can feel that. So, I get appreciating your, your, the wealth of your background in storytelling, in the libraries, and also working communities. And I guess there's two areas I'd like to touch on. One is the kind of general community work, general work you do with storytelling and people. And then secondly, to touch on the work you've done with reconciliation, and more directly with the troubles. Okay. So is there, is there, maybe we can start with what you're doing in communities now? Maybe some projects that you're enjoying. Right. Well, I've been tell stories for a very long time. I went to work in libraries in 1973, and they told me you had to tell stories to children. I was horrified. I mean, horrified. I mean, I'm the youngest in our family. I've never done to do a children, didn't particularly like children at a point. And there I was with a picture book shaking, trying to read a story to children. But then I discovered they absolutely loved it. And over the years, I became more adept at it. And then I put down my picture books and started telling from me to them. And that was terrific. So I suppose that's over. That's about 48 years. Would you believe that? Long time. So over that period, I've worked with children, preschool, primary school, teenagers. But then, of course, I've done a lot of adult work. I started my first adult story to uncover about 1986 in telekarnets, 31 years old. Now, my addition isn't good. We started with the Belfast-Jorn Spinners. Telekarnets, 31 years old, running every month still. So that's going very well. But the projects I'm involved with are very lucky. Six years ago in January, I was appointed storyteller in residence through a thing called the Armstrong Storytelling Versury, which has since become a ledger to charity, the Armstrong Storytelling Trust. So I head up projects at the moment. We're doing one called Magic Moments, which is two storytellers and two musicians going into nursing homes, delivering 24 sessions. I'm sorry, nursing homes and centres for people living with dementia. The Magic Moments is a mix of reminiscent storytelling and music, all those old. I can still sing the Magic Moments song. Anyway, that's one thing we're doing. The Blackburn Trust has funded us to do story counts, to encourage children, to learn how to tell stories. We've got a bed at the minute for teenage storytelling mentoring, just good as well. That's what we've got. Enkel and trust gave us money to work with learning disabled adults, and that's going really well, calling our own and vacuant far underleading that up. So they're singing their dance and they're playing having a ball, actually, real ball. So those are just some of the things. But again, we try and get pockets of money, which fund specific things. The trust pays for a lot of things. We run also six storycubs a month. What was I thinking? What was I thinking about anyway? With six, six based and six libraries. Unfortunately, at the minute, we've gone back to virtual. But once things open up, we hope they will. We'll be having live events in six different libraries throughout Northern Ireland. The tagline is taking storytelling into communities in Northern Ireland. I can hear just from the brief description that there's really diverse groups, from children, people with dementia and Alzheimer's, to disability groups, teenagers, open community groups. What is it that you think makes storytelling so adaptable? Like, how can you take this tool and work with all these different diverse groups? Well, I think the storytelling has got a flexibility, you know? As I always say when I'm training people, the key in storytelling is picking the right story for the right group. And there are enough stories to go around that fit each different group. People talk about you use storytelling. I don't like that expression. I say I work with stories because if you're trying to use storytelling, the story can't hit you over the head, you know, don't tell me, tell another one. So I like to work with stories. And there is that flexibility, and you can do a mix of, and we're not sniffing about it. We, we, and could poetry, we, and could historical things, we could reminisce, we could songs. So people say, what is storytelling, storytelling, all things to all people, you know? And a lot of them are personal anecdotes. I like to make a place where people can tell their own stories. There are many people who are voiceless. They've nowhere to tell their stories. We've seen that during the pandemic. It was stuck by themselves. Working online gives people the chance to communicate, to talk. To people all over the world now, I mean, that's the big thing. That's the big change that pandemic has worked up, where before we would have a session in a library, now with people maybe from Russia, from the other day with Russia, Argentina, Czech Republic, Canada, USA. And those people don't want us to start, we'll go back to reality. They want to continue with hybrid sessions, which we'll try and do. Yeah, now I can understand that. Just before we move on from this topic, you were talking about the right story for the right group. And I'm wondering if you could give us an example of one time, you've got two choices. One where you really got the right story for the right group or one where possibly you didn't because I've definitely had both of those situations. Well, the right story for it. There are stories that you know will always stand you in good stead. There's one that I tell, I'll be telling it later on today, caught away left, which is about giving somebody a boost. I can tell you if you want to, it's very short at some point, where it actually is one for boosting morale. Again, a lot of people have got very depressed during the lockdown and so on. So I think it's important to be there for other people and to give them what I would call a wee lift. So that's the perfect story. And I've used it with all sorts of different groups where I got it wrong. Try not to get things wrong. Sometimes if you get things wrong, the headiest thing and you'll know this story so well. Years and years ago, I was in a library in dairy and I was working with sort of 11, 12-year-old who love ghost stories. And I decided to tell she was stretched till. My mommy killed me. My daddy had to be, you know, what to call, apples and oranges. Yeah, apples and oranges. And she usually love that story. I was just aware of the hole I'm going, this is bad. Something bad is happening here. I don't know what bad is happening here, but it's not good. And I put my way through the story and at the end of the session they come up and told me there was a child in the group whose mother had died the day before and they sent her on to smell. What were they thinking? Well, they didn't inform me, you know, I actually don't tell that story anymore. In fact, I don't tell that story anywhere because you remember the Fred West case where he buried people under the floor. And just the heart doesn't warm to that story anymore. I've heard other people tell it and it's great, but it just put me off the story for life, you know, and I just can't tell. I can hear she does what it's telling it, but I know it's not for me anymore. Yeah, it's really striking to hear that. There's and I think sometimes you can be telling a story and then tell it in a certain context where a part of the story gets magnified or becomes more real in a certain way. For me, I've had a couple where they become a bit more uncomfortable to tell, or I need to be a lot more discerning in a way that I hadn't appreciated before. I think that's really important. I think we have to revisit stories, you know, and there'll be stories you put away and you don't tell Fred, just then they pop up again, things up and it's all right. I mean, obviously that one is a Juniper tree, it's original version of it with a grim story. It's pretty grim, all right. But no, just my heart never warmed to that story after that. And I have favorite stories. I mean, at Christmas time, I would tell them things that we do in the Silver Angel, the Duncan Williams' story. You can't fail with that if you tell that half decently, you know, but then there's other stories, you just have to make them your own, you know, and well, you have to, that's the key though, Duggy. You need to find out as much as you can about the grip you're working with. You need to find out, you know, I was going up to school and done a goal. I do my research before I go to a place. And I got to, there'd been a double suicide of teenagers, a terrible thing. I thought, "Whoa, I'm going up into the situation." And I was very aware of it. My daughter was a journalist, as a journalist. I went up there, turned out I had the brother of one of the girls in my class in my grip. And when we were doing a great writing exercise, he actually talked about a letter from a sister. Well, thank God I knew he was talking about you, not only. And I mean, I had lost a sister. And that night, but the best thing about this story though, we did an opening and preparing sat night in his mother came. It was the first time she'd been out of the house since her daughter had died. That was very emotional to me that she'd come. So I think stories have a power, I don't talk about woo-woo stuff like stories can change your life, well, they can't change your life, but I don't do the woo-woo stuff. But sometimes you see the impact of a good story well told or a shared experience. I think that's very important. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm really enjoying lots and what you've said. I kind of want to move on to the next question, but I'm also enjoying what you're saying. I'm wondering if there is a story that's impacted you in the way that you're talking about them impacting other people. If they've been a story or two that's just arrived in your life at a certain moment that you're like, "Oh, that was a good story for me to hear right now." Well, I mean, people always think we watch my favorite stories, my mother's own story about her journey back from India. I mean, that's probably the most impactful story that I know I'm sitting here with across her singer's soul machine that features in that story actually where she made a life jacket to save a child's life. So that's one that really, she didn't know she was doing it to save a child's life, but the child was saved. So that's probably the most impactful story in my life, and that's a personal story. I don't tend to tell personal stories, well, I'll do it in my memory, but I don't tend to tell on stage personal stories. So that's probably one, but again, it's more the people in the context. I mean, some of my favorite story tellers were the older Scottish storytellers. Stanley Robertson was a man that I just so much time for. I just absolutely anything he told. I loved, you know, and there are people like him um, Archie McFee, you know, there are people that were just fantastic, fantastic storytellers. So it's more, she had a quite a wonderful dairy storyteller who told things like the Lalenshy, which is a beautiful thing about a fairy lover. So it's more, I associate the story with the person who told me the story. I can hear their voice in my head. Yeah, it's the people side of things, the social side. Yeah. And I think I don't think I can continue that hearing maybe a little bit more of that story with your mother and the life jacket if you'd be up the whole thing quick. Well, it's very quick, so not just at least. Oh, yeah. Well, before I was born, long before I was born, a family of India, my father was a career soldier. So they were on the ocean coming home when the second world war was declared and they got camouflage paint put in the ships. The new, it was a very dangerous journey. And my mother realized that the life jackets they had wouldn't fit my brother who's two and a half or this little baby who was only about seven months old. So she made two life jackets out of Korka Nappies. And the Nappies, of course, were Terry. So on the ships, this is the fast version. Our family were in a ship called Britannia, the other family on the Yorkshire through the CS Canal, out through the Mediterranean, off the coast of France, a U-boat fighter torpedo which hit the Yorkshire, which sank very fast. Our family had to stand on deck, battle stations, all that stuff. But of course, I'm here, so you know, they made it home safely. And in those days, they heard about all the people who had drowned, including my mother's friend. And at that time, the only piece to see the news was at the cinema. And they went to the cinema in our mouth that, half the news. And on the screen, she saw a man carrying the baby in the bundle in the life jacket she had made. So the baby survived. So when my mom was 90, 90, the baby she recorded her and put her on the inch down. So I did a link to record her story. We got an email from Mrs. off James who said, I was that baby. My father, my mother was drowned. My father and I were rescued and brought to Bordeaux. I was able to tell my mom that two weeks before she died at 92. That's incredible. It's a good story. It's so incredible. It'll be a longer version of it. It's actually people can find it online. It's called My Mother's Sold. If you google me, that's where YouTube, my mother's sold you to see the version you actually see the soul machine as well. Yeah. I'll need to get the links for that at the end. And I can stick them in the notes to this episode. But that's phenomenal. And do you know anything of that, that woman story? Do you know anything? I really don't want to know because just my mom's gone, that's gone. No, I'm just happy enough to let it, let it rest. The only bit I knew was the baby survived. No, we know she definitely survived. That's it from my point of view. If my mother was alive, a problem would have taken on. The mummy died, so we just didn't do anything. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. That's really gorgeous. Fast version. So we did mention the piecework, the reconciliation work you've done in Northern Ireland. I think possibly the first time I met you was the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. A number of years now and you did a presentation that was just so striking. And I think it was one of the moments when I got a real sense of the power and the possibility of storytelling in tricky community or social context. So I wonder if you could share a little bit of the work you've done there. Well, from my history point of view, in 1976, I was appointed children's library in the city of Belfast. I mean, I'm a rural person to go up to Belfast to meet these streetwise kids. Oh my goodness, I'd buy and sell you. So the seventies were very bad, bombing shootings every single day. So it was quite a learning experience for me driving through bombscares and so on. I'm very adept. I can find my way anywhere in Belfast. But what to do, our children, again, people are surprised. Maybe listen, this shall still be surprised. 95% of our children are still educated separately. Segregate education, Protestant school to state schools, Alex school to Catholic schools. So there's no problem mixing apart from the integrated schools, which are spring and up. I'm a big supporter of. So how to bring children together? So there used to be a niche that you bring in a classroom one school, class the other. And they sit there and they're very separate uniforms because you know, you're uniform defined to what school you go to, you know, it's a Catholic school, a Protestant school. And I can really board it at the same uniform. Can we jumble them up? Oh, we bet. So I'd jumble them all up and they'd have them going off into corners, enforce, share and store. Who's ever been accused of doing something you didn't do? What was the best Christmas present ever got? You know, as your brother got a nickname for you, all these things, things that we have in common and getting to talk. Well, then from an adult point of view, when you bring a group of adults together and get them to share the stories, one person will be up, tell the story, but go on to mass. Another one will be tell the story about the farmer's union or going to orange parade. You know, so you naturally hear stories in different backgrounds. And my point is if you pay someone the respect of listening to their story, whether you agree with what they're saying or not, that creates a bond between you, you know? And I think my job as a storyteller is to create a listening space where people will tolerate each other, and we'll listen to a different point of view. I'm not asked them to convert, you know, I just want them to appreciate that not everybody has a similar story. The story I use quite a lot in that is the one that was crafted by Dan Ketting, my friend, I don't know why it's called the two warriors, I'm sure you've heard that we've a battle and every day they fight till there's just two warriors left, but at the end of that day they take off their weapons, they sat them down. They know they're going to end up the next day and they talk on talks about the daughter of the other talks about some. And then the next morning when they stand up to fight they look at each other and tears well up and they sat down their weapons and they walk away because it's very difficult to hate somebody once you know their story. So I'm all about trying to get people to tell them it's an easier thing to sit up and play and press the button and drop a bomb down and it is to face somebody, face to face. So I'm all about this face to face hard to hard thing you know. Yeah yeah and I'm actually striking and yeah I think there's a truth in that that's possibly even really relevant in the modern world you know as we're all sitting behind screens and although conflict I've definitely seen in commentary over the last years last year or two especially and it often feels quite impersonal. Yeah it's about ideas and this truth or that truth and there's something about sharing stories that people can't argue with. You're not claiming this is the grand truth of everything it's just you're you're storing. It can be applied to anything. It can be applied to I do a lot of Andy Bullion work in schools where you're putting people into situation or you know where they can be like cultural diversity. I mean I've had that I was in a school in Anshun where there were Polish kids who were getting a hard time you know and I said to you know it was very easy to spot a man bully. I said to him say to him all right I can go when I say right guess what? Daddy's got a job and pod and we're all going next week. I'm sure you can't speak Polish but sure once you get into school you'll be grand this boy said it wouldn't go. I said no you don't understand you say you have no choice you say daddy's got this job and we're all going you know just to get them to put themselves into the situation of another time but you're talking about these screens it's perhaps an amazing thing that something I'm doing a bit of research on we have built a very strong community online. I mean you probably know I run a session every Saturday night online we're still getting between 40 60 people coming on from all over the world they know each other they've not met but they know each other they say I haven't seen Jim Fried just how's Jim doing oh it's great that Alex back again they've actually come to know these people and one of the fun things even here locally some of the people you've met are local storytards Massacone plant they've never actually met before and we actually bring them together in the meet they feel as though they know each other for ages but they've never actually met before so I'm having a lot of fun how it's possible to introduce people to each other then half the Americans all want to come over and visit us when the pandemic's over you know so we have built a really strong community and one of our ladies Donna Marie is 86 never misses I asked her to write something for me as part of research and about the impact of these sessions and it's very moving to read that she's isolated she's got a disability she's not getting out to see people she's not driving anymore this is actually kept her going and that is from a community service point of view that really gardens my heart it's amazing the reach and I mean definitely when I see how often you're running things online I'm like where does where does Liz get this energy from but when I have stepped into the sessions it's I've really appreciated the the fondness that everyone's got for the shared space it does actually energize you you know I love it okay it was said to me do you know I fell up some Saturday nights I think oh rather be sitting with a drink of mine but I'm just supposed to do that as well but I just love it I mean have a dog here that's heard more stories than those dogs in the world and it's terrific I just absolutely love it and they keep in touch you know they don't just come on this Saturday night emails are flying and what's up this just it's like a very very strong community and I love that and there's people that were too scared to share a story at the beginning another come on and share and I love encouraging people you know and it's not a competition that's one thing I always want to stress interviews storytelling is a non competitive sport you know can't stand the idea of weighing one up against the other no two people like the same stories you know yeah yeah no that's good advice so I would love to hear a story from you at some point and I want maybe you've just said it there but I was seeing as you've touched on people starting telling stories people that you know stepping into telling the first story I'm wondering if you've got any advice for people starting out in that path they're telling stories or even advice that you wish you'd been given well first of all I think people have to ask themselves why they want to tell stories why is it an ego thing is that they've heard a story and they like it they want to repeat it over again some people don't realize that actually takes a bit of work the one thing about listening to an experienced storyteller is you try and make it look easy well you know I've been doing it a long time but actually it takes when you stand back and look at the different skills this is why the federation of European story time I've done a thing called story time yet colors and it breaks up the strands that you need the different aspects of story time that you put into a performance you don't realize that when you're doing it never analyze it's very good so advice why do you want to do it who are you drawn to tell to you drawn to tell to children to adults there's a particular story type that appears to you genre because most people who start and this is true to you I hope you agree with me most people who start start because they've been influenced by somebody they've heard Robin Williamson they've heard Duncan Williamson you know always have some trouble Williamson they've heard a particular storyteller they say oh that's great I love that and sometimes actually when they start they almost model themselves on that person you know and it takes a while to develop their own style now when I started I was very much a librarian so very much reading stories and I remember one of my great I've been very lucky for great mentors like Leigh Eileen Cullwell, Leigh Grace Hallworth I remember bringing good Grace Hallworth to Belfast in the late 70s and I listened to her tell stories and I thought I met as well shot myself up and recovered because I can't I can't do this and it took me a while to realize of course I can't do it she's Grace I'm Liz she couldn't do what I can do either which is very different so it takes people a while to find their own style and that's where a mentor can convince somebody who can advise them I love when I'm teaching stories what I love best of all is to say to somebody I find this story I think it'll really suit you and that's one thing the 40 years it's weird I know what stories sit what people and it's lovely to see what a journalist like Massacre one of my colleagues here I just gave her a Christian story she's going to tell it either tomorrow night or weekend and I can't wait to see what she'll do with it you know she'll make it her own but I love to make suggestions so write other advice next stories that suit you don't stretch yourself beyond your limitation start short start simple keep it simple I think that's very important there's a few few tips anyway but basically it's the repertoire that suits you and suits your audience as well see some people like it into the story and they don't care who it's for this for themselves that's not the story tons about story tons the dynamic between you and the audience the audience has to like it yeah no that that all seems I can hear truth and all that for me as well probably also hear a squeaky tie which the dough is just bent up how's Eric doing he's too great he's standing here that can't be I don't know what he's wanting but he's not gonna get up for a while so we better not deprive Eric it was Walker or whatever else he's wanting for too much longer in case he starts squeaking any louder you want a story then if you've got one is the one we just do the wee left I think we referred to the wee left so we should probably tell it and this story was they say collecting the grounds of anthem I have found a version of it in the Vietnamese folk tale book which is just bizarre anyway so you they say there's only so many jokes in the world so I sat the story here where I live in the rural guns of Anthem where the sheep and rushes the more rushes the more sheep the land is not good for cultivation so there's a health farmer he and his wife with a small farm cow from milk few hands and this was found down round them you know and they were sitting one day at their dinner dinner used to be in the middle the denture though it seemed in Scotland but we would always have a dinner in the middle of the day and the mom was depressed now nobody used the word depression in those days they'd say he wasn't out himself in the place of gun to rag and ruin when they're sitting there over just put it as a modern milk when the door opened and the door locked in this was the days you didn't have to keep your door locked men when the road would come in you give them hospitality they'd maybe give you lucky charm or piece of heather and they'd be on their way men's your pots and pans so the old man's sat down and they shared what they had with him and over the course of the meal the farmer was telling about all the things we're going on and the old man stood up to go and he said I'd like to thank you for your kindness but I want to give you something and out from under his raggedy jacket he brought a lump of gold he said that might help he was gone farmers less than what we're going to do with this so I don't know we'll bury it there by the hearth and this is a days when there were earth and floors in fact the floor I'm sitting on used to be on earth and floor when I bought it so they buried it there by the hearth and the farmer's wife said well we get another cow but it totally says that cow's a good milker no she says given period and then she'll come back to her so your hands aren't down to her we'll get you more hands no thought she says we better care they'll come back on the lay I know she said should a fence post throw rotten it's pent up he says we've got fence posts I haven't got the paint in the bar in there I just never got around to and they talked and the good thing about the story as you can say time passed and a whole year went by and the chump turned up again what a different place and you calf in the field hands strapped over the middle he has all painted up nice fencing and this time when he came in meeting two veg for the dinner so they greeted and they sat him down sat him up and I spanked piano food and he talked and they talked about all the good things that had happened and you know the farmer said this saw down to you and the old man said what did you spend the gold on and a lone pass between the husband and wife is it to tell you the truth we didn't spend it at all it's still buried there where we left it and the old man said she might have a take it with me because maybe the next piece of gold somebody else said could be doing with it farmer said you surely gave us a wee lift well he said maybe I can take this wee lift and share it with somebody else and that's the story and I think that's what it's like for all of us it's not somebody telling you for many benefits you can get is somebody saying come on and meet you for a cup of coffee or share we'll have a zoom collier around today if you buy yourself so that's why I like wee lift hmm thanks for sharing that list and that's really a really gorgeous story for people to take away with them and I think I mean that takes us I think to quite a nice ending where can people find out more about what you're doing well the Armstrong Storytown Trust has got a good website armstory.org.uk armstory.org.uk there's weird.net's my own and again social media I'm strong trust Storytown Trust with a Facebook page Twitter account and so on so we use that's the thing that there's no conflict between modern technology and social media and traditional storytelling you know people say you're a traditional storyteller well no I tell traditional stories I want to describe myself as a traditional storyteller I'm a storyteller and I work online I work over the case and I have absolutely I've had normal times you know digging I would travel a lot internationally but wings have been clipped at the minute but what I love I mean this must be a big fest for Maricash in February I'm older I hope that we'll get to international storytelling festival in Maricash but storytelling I believe is the original worldwide web so what connects us and I love the fact that with the strong community wherever you go in the world you're going to Iceland you're at Austria you'll find storytellers there Malaysia I mean massacre my Japanese friend this weekend is on in Mumbai and India she's also on America you know so we're not restricted unfortunately during the pandemic we can't travel but we can travel virtually I think that's a great thing so I just said that if people are interested in storytelling look for courses that I've been teaching an accredited course here which is probably the best thing I've done in all my years of storytelling because we've put through 40 of people of whom at least 20 odd earning money talent stories not all the time but with some great people who've stepped forward like Paul and Irwin Muscle carriage and these weird Stephen O'Hara fantastic storytellers who now sharing their stories worldwide and I think that's the thing like folk cultures evolved don't they traditions check and they adapt to what's relevant to people it's not about staying in the past is it and just replicating what things as they were 100 200 300 300 years ago yeah it's kind of moving with the people I think it has to I mean you'll get traditional say you shouldn't changes you shouldn't change that but life changes things do change you know and some of the traditional old stories are still as good today as they were 200 years ago and then there are other there are always new stories being made you know and I love that we have a young guy who's 18 they love Simon and he creates his own stories oh boy they're fairly bleak I can tell you but fantastic you know really really good to hear a young person just creating it's a very good creative writer and he'll deliver those you know in Scotland you've got young Elsa who again shared the stage with him and it's wonderful to hear these 18 year old sharing stories now so you don't have to be old to be a story with 12 year old Lily Anne who's fantastic young storyteller so my aim is to get as many people as possible telling stories and to make a place for them at least seven year old he wants to share something about his life as well there shouldn't be any restrictions whether you're where you're from, your cultural background, your gender, your sexual orientation. Storytell is absolutely everybody. So thank you Liz that was Liz Weir a real force of nature in the storytelling world doing performance and community projects and of course offering all kinds of training for new up-and-coming storytellers so if you're interested in studying with Liz maybe you want to check out her website or the Armstrong Storytelling Trust maybe you want to drop in on one of her sessions her online sessions on a Saturday night or maybe you want to take some inspiration from the story that she told the we lift maybe we want to think about what else we can do like what is the we lift that we can offer other people who in our lives might need a we lift right now and what could we do to offer them that regardless I hope you have enjoyed today's podcast and if you can it would be very much appreciated if you could leave us a review maybe share it with a friend share it with someone who you think might like it maybe that could be your way of offering a we lift maybe you could share this podcast and hopefully brighten up someone's day but reviews comments shares they're all very welcome and hopefully we'll see you next time when I'm teaching about storytelling um sometimes you have to deter people from just going to over the top you know some people get so earnest and so they have to do the big performance so I was telling the story I like about this young cured who was standing in for an old minister he'd honed his terminal and our law looks perfect they delivered it in the morning to a full church but in the evening only one old man came but didn't start him he gave everything when he came down to check hands the old man at the door the old man wasn't saying anything he said to Sir it could ask what you thought missurban the old man says son I keep hands when I go out to feed them at night if only one hand comes I don't give them the fill bucket and that's what I feel to give it less is more sometimes you just have to hold back I think that's very important yeah I love that that's a Good one.