When HOLLYHOCK invited StoryShards to Cortez Island,
I was thrilled — it's a match. The Hollyhock mission and my own are mutual: Hollyhock exists to inspire, nourish and support people who are making the world better.

As a Visual Artist and Story Guide, I continually evolve the StoryShards narrative with an intentional eye towards helping others clarify how: Our Stories Reveal Our Mission.

With its emphasis on imagination and engaged creativity, throughout the retreat, we explore the relevance of our individual and collective StoryShards in Hollyhock's creative and spiritual atmospheres.

Grounded in a natural maritime environment and steeped in the salt sea air, on Cortez Island, there is time and space for personal reflection; walking meditation; creative practices; raising cairns on the shoreline; and skipping stones out to sea. That's where you'll find me.

Your Creative Engagement in the world really counts.

KUDOS FROM STORYSHARDS PARTICIPANTS

"Love Lisl's big heart and authenticity. StoryShards is excellent with timely material. Beautifully presented - Love the visual aspect. I would participate in a longer StoryShards experience with Lisl."
Participant - UPAYA ZEN CENTER- SANTA FE, NM

"Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!
A wonder-filled STORYSHARDS weekend. Lisl captured me from
the very start with that twinkle in her eye, and her subtle out-there personality. The retreat opened my heart further; sparked my curiosity
and imagination; and strengthened my Buddhist practice."
SUSAN MORTON - Tucson, AZ

"Went to StoryShards with no real expectations. What I got out of it
amazed me. Lisl's multimedia vignettes drew me - and everyone else - shaking-up our mental nests, engaging us, challenging us - and ultimately uniting us. I loved it!"
KERRY ARMOUR - Millipede Media Group

"StoryShards was wonderful! So much is unfolding for me since our time together. After much reflection, I am allowing my proverbial ducks
to line up in a row."
CYNTHIA SMITH - Oak Creek, WI

www.hollyhock.ca/cms/Lisl-Dennis.html

Lisl@StoryShards.info

WHAT'S A STORYSHARD?

Visual Artist – LISL DENNIS – StoryShards Guide

A new video on the STORYSHARDS YouTube Channel from my recent program at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico.

STORYSHARDS
are the sacred guiding memories
and motivating themes of your life,
integral to the whole vessel.
LISL DENNIS

REAL KEEPERS

What are STORYSHARDS? For me, they are the real keepers – the succinct anecdotes and short-story-bytes scattered throughout the fields of memory. Not the whole drawn-out drama, they are the useful fractal flashbacks from your extended narrative. Like shards turned up on an archaeological dig, STORYSHARDS are often left in the dust of fast-forward lives. With personal spadework, I have discovered that keeper shards are sighted in memory; unearthed to awareness; and sifted and collected from your story under-told – revealed from the layerings of a life consciously lived.

MEMORY SHARDS

Memory Shards abide in your mental pockets – in all colors, shapes and sizes. They are formative, wise, inspiring, devastating, comforting, sad, funny – and much more. Shards can also be sharp – tucked into the back pocket of memory. Often edgy shards become softened by the touch of time and special attention. Today, willing to hold all your shards in hand, I think this is the current question: What are the relevant STORYSHARDS still working you in formative ways that support your resiliency, creativity and engaged service within the world.

WHAT'S RELEVANT

The upcoming Hollyhock STORYSHARDS retreat is a personal archaeological dig. It invites creative spadework to sort through the shards of your life and gently brush off the relevant real keepers. What has become important to me over the years is the work of sifting and curating the valued shards that promise to re-form continuously into new vessels of hopefulness, resiliency, creativity, and capacity. Not the same old cracked pot dreaming of Gorilla Glue, how can you re-form the vessel to hold water in service within a shattered world? This is the relevant archaeological field work for your Story Forward.

STORY FORWARD

A Gathering for Women, STORYSHARDS: Archaeology for Your Life is upcoming at Hollyhock September 13-18. With my progressive sequencing of high-production video vignettes, STORYSHARDS is a distinctive creative format with vibrant imagery and evocative music garnered from my travels and experiences in a diversity of contexts and cultures – often on global editorial assignments with my travel writer husband Landt Dennis. The naturally beautiful Hollyhock on Cortez Island, BC is a conducive environment and creative atmosphere in which to do your personal STORYSHARDS spadework.

https://www.hollyhock.ca/cms/Lisl-Dennis.html

MUTUALITY

How on earth did I, Lisl Dennis, dig up STORYSHARDS? For years, having been digging around as a participant in numerous and various spiritual contexts, workshops, retreats and pilgrimages around the world, I came to a point where multi-step woo-woo and outmoded programs run with top-down teaching styles, no longer suited me. I continue to seek out grounded programs that unfold creatively and engender mutuality within the group.

TAKE AWAY

Sponsored by Canon and Kodak, I taught Creativity in Culture workshops about the creative process in travel photography. Today, I host STORYSHARDS in various contexts. I have learned to trust the beauty, and the layering and patterning of visual metaphors and musical atmospheres as they invite relevant questions and conversations within a group.

It's not all about me! Inviting spontaneity and creativity, the STORYSHARDS experience emerges naturally from participants' reflections and interactions. In recent years, the program has evolved into a dynamic womens' retreat. The outcomes and take-aways from STORYSHARDS are not mine: They are your own!

My next Hollyhocklife.org posting will be on the nature of Engaged Creativity based on a recent STORYSHARDS reunion gathering here in Santa Fe, NM. Engaged Creativity is a conversation we will have together at Hollyhock in September.

STORYSHARDS

A very stimulating and inspiring experience. As life ALWAYS proves to me, I get more when I leave expectations at the door. My word is 'layering.' As the days pass, I continue to unearth the impact of how Lisl's unique program has blessed me.
DEBBIE HAINES-NIX Director,
Life Coach Sanctuary On The River Ruidoso, NM

STORYSHARDS is such a beautifully informed sensibility and inspiration. Lisl sparks inspiration in each participant, an endeaver made even more rewarding by her warm and acknowledging style, and ability to speak in such a precise and poetic way. Pictures, music, words, wisdoms, questions–much fun!
KELLEY FLETCHER – Artist, Santa Fe, NM

KISMET & KARMA A special treat to participate in STORYSHARDS – Kismet & Karma with such a wonderful group of women. Thank you for your vision in creating an environment for sharing at this level.
PARTICIPANT – Santa Fe, NM

https://www.hollyhock.ca/cms/Lisl-Dennis.html