Shifting Stories-Episode 27-Imagination Mastery – Chapter One

08/04/20 • 12 min

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. The man who has no imagination has no wings. —Muhammad Ali Here is the question you might, and probably should be, asking yourself. Why bother with learning how to be an Imagination Master? What practical use could being a master of imagination be in the “real” world, or daily life? Perhaps you are wondering why you would waste the next few months of your life practicing how to imagine. I mean, after all, what will your friends and family say? Perhaps they would ask you if there aren’t more productive ways to spend your time. And then there is always the chance that, like me, imagining is something you were supposed to stop doing. Or at least hide that you are doing it. I can’t tell you how many times a teacher, or parent, would catch me staring into space and ask me, “Are you daydreaming again?” Yes. Yes, I was, and it was fun! After all, I was a reader of fairy tales and science fiction, and it all seemed so marvelous. It seemed so much better than sitting behind a desk in a square room. I asked myself what it would be like if I were a fairy in the forest? Or if there was a unicorn waiting for me to ride home. They were the imaginations of a little girl. What good were those imaginations to me, other than to make life more fun? And what good will being a master of imagination be for you, or me, as an adult? Sure, now that I am long past grown-up, I can turn my imaginations into stories, and then books, and that seems like a practical thing to do after all. But that is only one small use for it. It doesn’t answer the question of why you, or I, would want to be an Imagination Master at any age over ten. There is such a good reason that it is almost shocking. Especially since we have been taught that the world is only what we see or experience through our five senses. That we need to grow up and make a living. That success can be measured. What if that was all wrong? Imagine this. It is! Keep listening and reading ... Find the Imagination Mastery audio and book everywhere you buy books or audio! Imagination Mastery Now available WHEREVER you want to buy it. Click to find Imagination Mastery at your favorite Book Store

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Shifting Stories-Episode-26-Shatterskin-Chapters 3 & 4

A Metaphysical, visionary, fantasy, adventure: Still holding my head, I started to follow the bird that looked like Lady into the forest until I realized what I was doing. I was following something into somewhere without questioning what was happening. It was like getting into a strange car with an unknown person. Would I ever do that? No. Even if the person looked like someone that I knew? Well, perhaps. But birds look almost alike, don’t they? So it wasn’t as if I could tell Lady from another bird just like her. Almost too late I saw the bird fly back towards me, bent on either knocking me over again or pulling my hair. Either way, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I dropped to the ground and curled into a little ball and stayed there. Probably looked pretty stupid, but at least I didn’t get my hair pulled. I lifted my head just a bit and saw the bird sitting on the ground in front of me. I got the distinct impression that she was not happy with me for thinking that she looked the same as other pileated woodpeckers that looked like dinosaurs or dragons. Birds, animals, insects could tell the difference between each other, why couldn’t I? She turned her face sideways and looked directly into my eyes. Something about those eyes were familiar, and at that moment I knew for sure that it was Lady from Earth who was sitting there. I reached out to touch her head, and she pulled her head back and gave me a look that I wouldn’t forget. No touching. “Okay, okay. So you’re Lady. Now, what is this place?” I took a big breath in and smelled the woods. It smelled like the forests back home. Loamy, cool, a city of insects and animals mostly invisible unless you lived there and learned to see. Before stepping into the portal, I had been learning a little about the forest behind our house. Learning more about this forest was going to be fun. Maybe it would give me a clue as to where I was, assuming I wasn’t dreaming. Didn’t that voice say, Erda? Screwing up my courage, I decided it was time to explore. I stood up, and for the first time since I tripped and fell on my face, I looked down at myself and screamed. Who was this person? Was it me? What looked like my hands felt the clothes that I had on. They were not what I was wearing when I was standing in the door of the portal. I had been wearing what I always wear, like most girls my age: skinny jeans, t-shirt, and at the last minute I had grabbed my favorite soft sweater. Suzanne had told me I couldn’t bring anything other than what I was wearing through the portal. Everything else would dissolve in the transfer. What I needed would be provided for me. What she had neglected to tell me was that I would arrive in different clothes. I ran my hands over whatever it was that was covering my legs. They felt almost like the leggings I wore in the winter and looked like the ones that woman by the tree had been wearing. However, they felt completely different from anything I had worn before. These leggings were still soft like winter leggings, but much stronger. They were as tight as my skin but so lightweight that if I hadn’t seen that I was wearing them, I would have thought I had nothing on. Scary thought, that. The shirt was the same material as the leggings. Close to my body, but soft and comfortable. As a reader of strange stories, I wondered if I was caught up in a dream, like in one of my books. Ones where people ended up in bodies that weren’t theirs. Because not only were the clothes weird, so was I. Older. Not twelve anymore. The tight clothing proved that. Not me. At least not the me that lived on Earth. Listen and read on ... Read Shatterskin, the first book in The Return To Erda , and fall in love with these characters that choose friendship, goodness, and faith in each other in order to defeat evil. READ and LISTEN anywhere you buy your books and audio.

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Shifting Stories - Shatterskin - Chapters Five and Six

A Metaphysical, visionary, fantasy, adventure: Ruta moved through the woods faster than I thought possible. Beru was even quicker. She kept circling back behind me and then running ahead of Ruta, and then coming back to me. I was running faster than I had ever run before, so how she was doing that was a mystery. There was no path as far as I could see. Ruta and Beru just ran, and things moved out of their way. Or at least I thought that was what was happening. I didn’t see any movement. Instead, there was an opening wherever Ruta went, and I followed Ruta through it. After what felt like two days but was probably less than an hour, I couldn’t run anymore. I tripped over my foot and fell flat on my face again for the second time in one day. I hoped it would be the last. Ruta had kept on running, but the next time Beru circled back she found me lying on the ground trying to breathe. She clicked her fingers together, and a moment later Ruta was there. “I don’t think she can go on right now, Ruta. Let’s stay here. We’re far enough from the clearing, and we can hide here until Hannah rests. Your friend has told us how much energy it takes to come through that portal. You need to rest.” When Ruta turned his grumpy stern face to me, I burst into tears as I mumbled, “Thank you Beru, and I’m sorry, Ruta.” I caught a look pass between them, and I swear I saw Ruta’s block face soften. I was too tired to ask what friend they were talking about. When Beru placed a mound of leaves under my head and covered me with some mysterious cloth she pulled out of her pocket, I fell asleep within seconds. The last thing I heard before entering emptiness was Suzanne’s voice saying it was safe, for now. That was enough for me. Suzanne hadn’t deserted me. Read Shatterskin, the first book in The Return To Erda , and fall in love with these characters that choose friendship, goodness, and faith in each other in order to defeat evil. READ and LISTEN anywhere you buy your books and audio.