Saturday, December 12
12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm UK / 9pm CET · 90 minutes · Online
For Sidewalk Talk listeners and chapter leaders
Before Sidewalk Talk closes on December 31, let’s tell the stories one more time.
Bring a story of a time you listened on the sidewalk. Your favorite, or the one that shows up once you hear someone else’s. You don’t need to prepare. The story usually knows which one it wants to be.
We’ll meet together, then break into small groups so everyone gets to tell a story and be heard all the way through.
How a story circle works
Everyone gets the same amount of time. Usually 3 to 5 minutes each. Someone keeps time, gently.
No interrupting. Not even a “me too.” Just listen.
Tell a story, not an opinion. “There was this man on Market Street...” instead of “Listening is important because...” - the smell, the color, how you felt, how it unfolded.
Stories don’t get fixed, debated, or corrected. Your story is yours. Nobody says “that’s not what really happened.”
You can pass. If nothing comes when it’s your turn, say “pass” and we’ll come back around.
Listen instead of planning yours. This is the hard one, and the one we’ve all practiced on the sidewalk.
After everyone has told a story, we talk about what we noticed across the stories, not about any one person’s and what moved us in hearing the collectivity in the stories,
What’s shared in the circle stays in the circle.
Sound familiar? It’s basically the sidewalk, minus the chairs.