{"id":8404,"date":"2019-08-29T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8404"},"modified":"2019-08-26T16:03:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T23:03:12","slug":"guest-blogger-cara-wasden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/guest-blogger-cara-wasden\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger Cara Wasden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s Guest Blogger, Cara Wasden, writes about the value\nof story-telling and listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day our [Toastmaster\u2019s] club president emailed members\nasking if anyone would be interested in volunteering for one hour at a seniors\ncommunity. She said administrators wanted to set up a Table Topics session for\ntheir residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought, \u201cThat sounds like fun, and it\u2019s only an\nhour!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I signed up and headed over to the seniors complex the\nfollowing week. I was immediately introduced to Albert, Larry, Terry, Shirley\nand Joan, and I became fascinated by their world of living history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved the stories they shared that day. Albert recalled a\nharrowing time for his family more than 50 years ago, as they awaited hearing\nwhether his lottery number would be called in the Vietnam War draft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry talked about his career as a professional photographer\non an African safari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry shared how he recently bought a stranger lunch\u2014an act\nthat was out of character for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan spoke about her terrifying experience being stranded at\nan airport as a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What particularly stuck with me was what Albert told me\nafter the session. \u201cJoan never talks. That was so special to hear one\nof her stories.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew right then that Table Topics with seniors shouldn\u2019t\nbe a one-time event. I offered to return the next week if they were interested.\nThat was three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, there are ten regulars; others come and go. Some have\npassed away, and tears have been shed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have become a family,\u201d a sweet woman named Pat says\nregularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people get into their 70s, 80s and 90s, they have a\nlifetime of heartwarming, humorous, and cherished stories to share, but they often\ndon\u2019t have anyone willing to listen. If I hadn\u2019t stuck around, I would have\nmissed the truly beautiful love story of Charles and Charmaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles is 95 years old, and the couple had been married for\n75 years. Charmaine passed away a few months ago. Charles has spoken over and\nover again about his one true love, and of their continuous honeymoon at their\nhome in Hawaii, where they frolicked in the waves sunbathing and\nskinny-dipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best part of this opportunity is that residents feel\nlistened to. They feel loved. They laugh and they hear laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some residents have lost most of their cognitive abilities,\nso their contributions are more from the here and now. Whatever question Pat\ngets, she always says, \u201cI love it here, just being surrounded by all of you!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Gerry speaks, her stories often don\u2019t make much sense,\nbut she has such variety in her voice and facial expressions that her body\nlanguage is enough to keep us fully engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every week that I\u2019m at the seniors community, I also feel\nlistened to, loved, and rewarded with a gift of smiles and laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpted from \u201cMy Turn,\u201d Toastmasters International, August\n2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cara Wasden\u00a0<\/a>is a member of the Toast of Petaluma club in Petaluma, California. She is a public speaking coach, a middle-school speech teacher and a tour guide for nature hikes with kids. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Guest Blogger, Cara Wasden, writes about the value of story-telling and listening. One day our [Toastmaster\u2019s] club president emailed members asking if anyone would be interested in volunteering for one hour at a seniors community. She said administrators wanted to set up a Table Topics session for their residents. I thought, \u201cThat sounds like fun, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1198,272],"class_list":["post-8404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-cara-wasden","tag-toastmasters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2by","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8404"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8408,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions\/8408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}