O.N.E. Spoken Story Series~Picking Mountain Pears
About our Spoken Story Series
Because of the needs of this time —when our normal outgoing lives have suffered a change and our social interactions, our education and our entertainment are happening mostly in our own individual homes, ONE is offering a series of told stories for your enjoyment, healing, unwinding and to lean into the ancestral wisdom passed through tales, myths and legends.
Our story-teller, April Thanhauser, is a member of the ONE visioning council and a life-long lover of folk and fairy tales. She tells us:
“Stories, like hearth fires and campfires have always brought people together —for sharing wisdom, laughter, tears, and comfort. No matter where our people came from, stories are part of our heritage. The traditional tales I will be telling originate from many different parts of the world, but please accept them as your own, a gift from the old ones of our shared human culture.
Make yourself comfortable by our imaginary hearth and feel the friendship of the other listeners, apart from time and space perhaps, but together in wonder and laughter. And please, enjoy the stories, knowing that though they come from long ago and far away, they live in the time outside time and in a place as close as your own imagination.”
About this Episode: Picking Mountain Pears
And for our second story, "Picking Mountain Pears", a traditional Japanese folktale, tells the adventures of three brothers who undertake a quest for the mountain pears to help their beloved mother heal from a mysterious illness. Although, the quest requires, bravery and courage, above all it requires the brothers to listen to the elders and nature .We love it because it confirms what many of us feel or intuitively know: that Nature Beings speak to us, if only we stop to listen.
In 1973, ONE story teller, April, spent some time in Japan, visiting temples and shrines and picking up stories where she could—in anthologies for English speakers and from friends who told her stories as they showed her the sights around Kyoto. She no longer remembers where she first learned this tale, it simply stayed with her all these years because it is so delightful.
Enjoy this tale, and remember that you won’t go wrong listening to the wind in the grasses, or for that matter, in the leaves of a pear tree…
Varying versions of the story can be found here: http://www.attaka-furusato.com/minwa/gb/yamagata/naranashi.html “The Wisdom of Japanese Folktales “
and here: https://www.waldorflibrary.org/journals/15-gateways/448-springsummer-2002-issue-42-the-story-of-the-mountain-pears, “The Story of the Mountain Pears”
Story Time Tea Pairing from Humboldt Herbals: Tree Hugger Tea
Tree Hugger tea is a perfect pairing for this story about learning to listen to voices of the more than human world. This blend was specifically created to help people open their innate intuitive abilities and align and communicate with nature, and in particular with the message and medicine of the trees. I like to think that when we take the bodies of the trees and plants into our own bodies - by drinking their roots, barks, leaves, fruits and flowers - they can sing our bodies into vitality and health. Here, nine different trees sing to your body while you slowly sip this blend of Birch bark, Linden flowers, Hawthorn berries, leaves and flowers, Elder flowers, Cedar tips, Eucalyptus leaves, Orange peels, Cinnamon tree bark and Slippery Elm bark. Soothing, nourishing, harmonizing and deeply supportive, listen to the trees and give thanks to the voices of our wise nature friends.
https://www.humboldtherbals.com/organic-bulk-teas/herbal-tea-blends/tree-hugger-tea.html
Listen to other Stories:
“Xueda and Yinlin”, tells the adventures of two courageous young people who seek a cure for the mysterious illness which has stricken their village.
In the story, “The Wonderful Healing Leaves”, the great-hearted, but perhaps not-too-sensible hero, must overcome overwhelming obstacles to procure healing leaves.
