Deep Time Storytelling

The moment the call begins, I already feel like a kid at Christmas. Chief Beverly Cook has medicine for the world. Her stories move mountains in the patient way of rain. For the last two years, it’s been my job to help her tell them, playing the role of editor, creative coach, and above all, cheerleader-in-chief. We make quite a team.

The guests log on. Her story is about to begin. I know that in moments, the energetic field will get so deep that even through Zoom, we could be together around a fire beneath the stars. So is the power of soulful storytelling.

My job is to open the container—to let people know they can rest into this, soften, take their armor off. To remind them that sharing stories in this way is as old as human time. To invite them to be fully here. I share what Chief Beverly taught me—that for the Mohawks, when a story is told, the people close their eyes “so that the words may land on the minds of the people.” By stepping into the internal world, they can feel the story fully, surrender to its flow, and gently float downstream.

When a story is working, it transports us. It is an alchemical union of the speaker and ourselves. This is my work—to help soulful people transmit with power that teleports us through time. As she prepares to tell her story, I know this will happen now—a moment of fusion, reunion, grace. We place our noses to the flower, close our eyes and breathe.

When the story ends, more than half the room is crying. There’s that shocked silence, one so familiar to the two of us, that seems to follow all her readings. Then the first brave person shares, and their tears convey what they could not say with words. “Yes,” we hear. “My soul has longed for this.”

To deep time storytelling,

-David Alder

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Upcoming Workshops & Courses

• Parables of Change, a ten-week rite of passage to craft a soulful story and share it with your world, May 6th - June 24th 2026

• Tools for Speaking from the Soul, a free 75-minute workshop on telling powerful, sacred stories, Friday, May 1st 2026 at 2pm Eastern

• Reach out for private coaching on storytelling, public speaking, and power of voice