NOTES FROM AUGUST PRESENTER LEONA STUCKY

Pens and Keyboards Transport Us into the Courage of Our Predictions: “Experience-Near” Reflections on Writing
By Leona Stucky 

We sapiens tell stories to make sense of ourselves and the world we live in. We may tell them only to ourselves, but we create them and willingly let them carry us into narratives where meaning is made. While no particular diagnosis can stereotype writers, we can articulate a few characteristics that many writers share. We might ask why writing is therapeutic and what we manufacture for ourselves by being concrete creators of story, of knowledge, of meaning; why we define what it means to be human. Why we need to contact expansiveness and yet be contained by reality, if not in fact, then at least in metaphor.

Raw courage—is how I characterize 12 years of writing one story. It’s an experience I do not want to double and yet I would not trade it. Nor would I trade the challenges it has provoked in my daily schedule after the writing is done, if it can ever be done. Future chapters may be written without words.   
 
Bio for Leona Stucky  LeonaStucky@gmail.com, 505-820-2433
A psychotherapist for more than thirty years, UU community minister, post-graduate teacher, clinical supervisor, and AAPC Diplomate, Rev. Dr. Leona Stucky recently became an author by turning the mirror inward to reveal her own personal story in a gripping and morally unflinching memoir, which has received acclaim from Ms. magazine and won other awards. In her professional life as well as her memoir, The Fog of Faith: Surviving My Impotent God, Leona plumbed the depths of faith and justice contradictions, speaking what we seldom say out loud. In her life and writing she provokes new discussions with heart-wrenching, vital stories. Her own journey includes trauma and terror, and a resilient drive that brought her into the professional world where she has made numerous contributions.