The investigation of the three principal dynamics involved in narrative inquiry: story, interpretation and discourse has made me particularly in tuned with my environment over the past few months. As if I am mindful to tap into a new capacity that provides me with data for perception. This data are the stories that surround me. I often find myself in such diverse settings throughout a day in which so many stories, interpretations and discourses take place.
Take today for example; I began my day with an early morning hike on a spectacular North Shore trail near my house. Then, before I knew it, I was at the emergency room at Children’s Hospital. My son had injured his shoulder the night before during his hockey game and we were there for an x-ray. A few hours later, in a busy restaurant with my son in a sling, we attend a team lunch. Shortly after, I find myself quiet again, this time in a little waiting room in East Van. I listen to my daughter and her acting coach rehearsing and preparing for an audition tape. She is going for the role of Laura Ingalls in the new movie Little House on the Prairie. I love to listen how the lines on a script become alive.
The idea of asking myself where I am at this time and less about who I am, has led me to take notice of places that occupy my days and how stories in these places define my being with others. In my weekly writing the theme of family, love, attachment, melancholy and yes, even fear often unfolded. I wrote in the present and past tense. I wrote in the first and the third person. I wrote the same story from three different people’s perspective. I wrote poetry and even tried an abecedarian. Something that I adored and learned from was experimenting with voice. I found that writing in the third person was easier for me when the story was personal. I was most intrigued by how one story can be told from many perspectives and would love to experiment more with this sort of discourse. Finally, the engagement in all sorts of writing and the focus on the art of discourse has solidified for me the value in the use of narrative inquiry as a multi-disciplinary tool.
From Portfolio of Narrative Inquiry, CCFI 508, 2014