I’ve been out and about on the trail visiting with students in their classrooms and talking about storytelling and all the amazing animals and places in The Tukor’s Journey. To say it has been rewarding does not fully capture how wonderfully meaningful it is to get a child excited about their own story. The message of my program is that we are all have a unique trail in life and a powerful mission, we are all authors of our own story, and we all are storytellers of our journey. The reason I wrote the book was to share that message. And doing so in person with kids is a great joy.

The above photo is a scene from The Tukor’s Journey, an old and abandoned school. There are times when we can feel abandoned. Unwanted. Unrecognized. Sometimes we even get those feelings when we are the brink of a great dream coming true. At one time, the school pictured here was vibrant, filled with the energy of kids learning to find their way in a big, exciting, yet often crazy and troubled world. Dreams were perhaps born in the minds of children who sat at those desks. And I hope they came true.

There is a line in The Tukor’s Journey where one of characters feels like the walls of an abandoned home seem to trap memories within them. And so it feels as we walk through the crumbling, empty places where people once talked, dreamed, met new friends, and shared in life. The silence seems to ask, “Where are they now?”

During my classroom visit, we do an exercise together in which the students are the authors, and they get to write the ending to a story. As is so often in life…we cannot prevent things from dropping on us unexpectedly and life propels us forward no matter what but in that journey, we can write powerful endings to our own story. We are not abandoned. Unwanted. Unrecognized. We are critical to a mission. Always.

It’s almost the end of the school year and yet schools are still scheduling visits with me to talk about The Tukor’s Journey and storytelling. Osseo School District. A school on Long Island and more. If your school would like me to visit soon or perhaps for summer reading programs or get lined up for programs for the fall – contact me here. I would love to hear from you.

The Tukor’s Journey is available for purchase online at Target, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, and other fine retailers.