I am walking around with a little booklet in my pocket. A booklet ready to be filled with little stories I spot.
Mark Schenk encouraged us to become story spotters. A first and wise step on the way to become a storyteller. Mark is an experienced and gifted storyteller. During the storytelling workshop in Zürich beginning of February Mark shared one ‘small’ story after the other. The stories were meaningful, relevant and engaging. He was weaving the knowledge of the background research on storytelling into his stories. He always made a point. I was impressed how natural his stories came across, with just enough details to make them lively.
I asked Mark if he has a ‘story brain’. He answered: “No, it’s just practicing. You have to spot stories and build your own story repertoire!” He does it himself. After a day of work, he sits down and jots down some key words about the stories he noticed. At the same time, he warned us: You can share stories you hear but never declare them your own. This can go completely wrong and it is not necessary.
One of the stories I spotted was about my friend Danièle. We went to a Thai for dinner this week. In the afternoon she texted me: ‘Made reservation. If you are early, ask for the table for the one eating the red curry.’ I wondered a bit. But that’s how it was. We arrived and while I was given the menu card the waitress asked my friend: ‘as usual?’ I looked for the red curry on the menu but could not find it. ‘Its not, it is a special combination of several dishes.” I ordered the curry special too, it was delicious.
You can introduce new habits. With the special vegetable red curry, it is the same as with spotting stories. You just have to insist long enough.
Learning moments 
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