Hello to you listening out on Nubanusit Lake, New Hampshire celebrating Michele’s Happy Birthday!

Nubanusit Lake, New Hampshire [drone footage] 

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Niccolò Machiavelli got it right with this quote on Change and Innovation in his 16th century political treatise, The Prince. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” [Click HERE for pdf copy]

Question: Who here is ready to embark on introducing a new order of things - no matter how small - no matter how uncertain? 

What will it take to lead to that new order?

By practicing Perfect?

No, Good is better than Perfect.

What about practicing Good?

No, Done is better than Good.

Okay then! Get ‘er Done! That’s how you lead today! 

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Services, arrange a no-obligation Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack.

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

Hello to you listening in Blue Hill, Maine!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Seth Godin, internationally known thinker, author and strategist posed a question: what’s the difference between a protest and a project? [Seth's Blog]

Protests let off steam. They organize people who might not show up by creating a moment in time where there’s enough opportunity and social pressure that they participate.

A protest sends a message.

But almost every time, the very things that made a protest appealing mean that it fails to change much. That’s because protests are momentary, temporary and urgent. The status quo is good at surviving protests. That’s why it’s still the status quo.

But a PROJECT begins with a protest that ends with, “We’ll be back tomorrow, and we’re bringing our friends!”

A PROJECT is impatiently persistent. It plays a longer game, one that can outlast the status quo.

A PROJECT identifies the system and brings a systematic approach to changing that system.

PROJECTS can seem boring when seen with a stopwatch, but they’re powerful when measured with a calendar.

Think about it: Nationwide we’ve marched at Hands Off in April, No Kings in June, Good Trouble in July, and in a few days Workers Over Billionaires on Labor Day. Other marches continue all over our country. We the People have become a Protest PROJECT!

Story Prompt: What happens each time you show up to a protest, share your voice, and come back for more doing your part to upset the status quo? Write that story! And tell it out loud!

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Services I offer, arrange a no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack.

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening all over Whidbey Island and these United States!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Traditionally, parades, picnics, and barbeques happen on Labor Day; but this year pack up the babies, grab the old ladies and everyone go to one of many mass mobilization protests that will be taking place from coast to coast.

We are working people rising up to stop the tycoon takeover - not just through the ballot box or the courts, but by building a powerful, ever stronger mass mobilization movement. We the People are fighting for a country that is more fair, just, equitable, and free for all of us. Together on Labor Day we hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets at June’s No Kings! rally.

We march to stop the tycoon takeover and cruelly obscene corruption of the Trump administration, to protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people, to ensure fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.

Hear us when we say: We the People want no part of you and your lies. We won’t back down. We will never stop fighting for our families, our rights, our freedoms!

Click HERE to sign up and join us on Whidbey Island

Date: Monday 1st September 2025

Time: 10 AM to 12 noon

Place: Coupeville intersection => HWY 20 & Main Street

Bring: flags, signs, good trouble spirit & non-perishable food items to donate to Good Cheer Pantry

Click HERE to access the Indivisible Whidbey website for tools you can use.

Click HERE to find the Workers Over Billionaires rally events happening in your city or region 

Thank you for listening, being one of us, and see you out on the streets this Labor Day!

We’re not watching history - we are making it - to save our Democracy!

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Services I offer, arrange a no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack.

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening all over Whidbey Island and these United States!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Traditionally, parades, picnics, and barbeques happen on Labor Day; but this year pack up the babies, grab the old ladies and everyone go to one of many mass mobilization protests that will be taking place from coast to coast.

We are working people rising up to stop the tycoon takeover - not just through the ballot box or the courts, but by building a powerful, ever stronger mass mobilization movement. We the People are fighting for a country that is more fair, just, equitable, and free for all of us. Together on Labor Day we hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets at June’s No Kings! rally.

We march to stop the tycoon takeover and cruelly obscene corruption of the Trump administration, to protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people, to ensure fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.

Hear us when we say: We the People want no part of you and your lies. We won’t back down. We will never stop fighting for our families, our rights, our freedoms!

Click HERE to sign up and join us on Whidbey Island

Date: Monday 1st September 2025

Time: 10 AM to 12 noon

Place: Coupeville intersection => HWY 20 & Main Street

Bring: flags, signs, good trouble spirit & non-perishable food items to donate to Good Cheer Pantry

Click HERE to access the Indivisible Whidbey website for tools you can use

Click HERE to find the Workers Over Billionaires rally events happening in your city or region 

Thank you for listening, being one of us, and see you out on the streets this Labor Day!

We’re not watching history - we are making it - to save our Democracy!

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Services I offer, arrange a no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack.

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Seattle, Washington!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more to visit history) for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Recently I read a comment on Substack about the changes being wrought by 47 and his criminal cabal to erase - as much as obscenely possible - evidence of slavery in America thereby making history disappear. Yes, many have tried to make history disappear but the stories, the oral histories, the voices, the art, books and photographs remain. Not all - but enough to stand witness.

One such book, The Ghosts of Segregation, was authored by our very own Whidbey Island writer and photographer, Richard Frishman who saw what 45's administration was doing and had to do something to defy it.   

Unexpectedly, while researching the Ghosts of Segregation, I found my way to the Panama Hotel in Seattle which some of you may remember as the hotel featured in the novel, The  Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford.

The Panama Hotel remains the repository of personal belongings stored there by some of the 8,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were forced from Seattle and into internment camps (known as War Relocation Centers) set up in Midwestern states as a result of Executive Order 9066. They had one week’s warning.

Eventually, over 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes, businesses and farms on the Pacific Coast in a systematic, government sponsored exile of innocent people. Most of them were United States citizens. The incarceration turned US citizens into refugees in their own country.

But the story is still alive staving off erasure. A grant from the National Park Service helped researchers document, catalogue and map the contents of suitcases, trunks, and boxes, over 8500 items left in the hotel basement. Because of the historical value of the Panama Hotel, it was designated as a National Treasure in 2015. Today the Panama Hotel serves as a living time capsule, a shrine to a community, and the site of the Japanese American Museum of Seattle.  

Story Prompt: How might we change the future with understanding and compassion so as to defy fear and hatred of The Other? Write that story and tell it out loud!  

And for inspiration check out the many links in the Episode Notes to access the Ghosts of Segregation as well as the Panama Hotel.  

 The Ghosts of Segregation by Richard Frishman

Click HERE to listen to the author, Rich Frishman tell you about his project in a short interview 

Click HERE to access a book discussion about The Ghosts of Segregation at University of Virginia 

Click HERE to visit: My Favorite Places - Panama Hotel - Ralph Munro former Secretary of State

Click HERE to read about the Japanese American Museum of Seattle

Click HERE to read National Trust for Historic Preservation; Asian American & Pacific Islander History;  Panama Hotel; Histories of Loss & Resilience

Click HERE to visit Panama Hotel - Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Click HERE to visit the Panama Hotel & Owner/Caretake Jan Johnson’s scrapbook

Click HERE to visit the Mysteries of the Panama Hotel

Click HERE to read The Many Lifetimes of the Panama Hotel - Stories of the Unjustly Imprisoned

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you Byron and Mariah Edgington listening in Gainesville, Florida!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.

My friend Byron Edgington wrote: “Isn't it fascinating how we humans revert to past events, as if we could/can change what happened there?”

Yes. We humans can be a silly species failing to acknowledge the past as the past. The past is like the wake behind a boat - the series of waves that trails behind a moving boat. But the wake doesn’t drive the boat; however, awareness of and learning from the past is what allows us to drive the boat of our present into a better future.  

The phrase "the wake doesn't drive the boat" (a metaphor attributed to Alan Watts) means that your past or wake of your life boat doesn't determine your future. Yes, learning from our past influences our present actions; but the future is determined by how we drive our boat now, not by the path we've already traveled.

Question: How have you learned to drive your boat forward based on choices arising from past lessons?

Click HERE to listen to Alan Watts talk about the boat analogy and how it applies to the present moment.

Thank you for listening and steady as she goes!

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in London, England!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more for courage) for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

It’s true what they say: "A story grows in the gaps where the facts fall short." 47 and his cabal are exploiting the gaps to create cruel and obscene stories because they have no facts.

Headlines that repeat 47's cruel and obscene stories like reign of terror, being on the eve of destruction, days of the dictator, subservience to the sociopath, and so on reinforce these stories. The more these stories are told without the counterbalance of truth, facts, good news, and how We the People are fighting back, the more these lies will take hold in our exhausted minds because these stories keep on gushing like torrents of water out of a broken fire hydrant.

Hear me when I say this: I am no idiot. Treacherous times are alive and afoot. 47 and his criminally complicit cabinet, feckless GOP congress, and subservient SCOTUS on speed dial are after nothing short of the utter desecration of our country. So, We the People must continue to push back, show up, stand up, speak up, fight and ever fight!

In the darkest days of World War II when all looked lost in the face of Nazi Germany’s advance across Europe and the Dunkirk evacuation, Winston Churchill summoned the will of the British people against those odds.    

His famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech was a galvanizing address delivered to the House of Commons on June 4, 1940.

Listen to a portion of history: “The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

Imagine the immense sacrifice and effort required of the British people to face the adversity and pummeling hardships of war. And yet, they did with courage and determination, with unwavering resolve to resist the Nazi threat, even to the last person, if necessary.

If the British defeated the Nazis - against all odds - who are we not to follow in their footsteps and prevail against the enemy within our shores? We have no Churchill to summon us to battle; but we shall fight and we shall win because We the People are defying them and their obscenely hateful stories.

Thank you for listening and making good trouble to liberate the land of the free and the home of the brave.  

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Manassas, Virginia!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more for a story tip) for Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

For over 30 years I’ve keynoted, written, taught and consulted on the “sorcery of stories.” Sounds rather magical and mystical, right? But there’s no witchcraft here. Only good old-fashioned narrative and imagination at work to interpret events, assign meaning, configure our stories, communicate insights, explain Truths, and shape our perspectives.  

At its best, the "sorcery of stories” offers us a means to explore, understand, and reframe old narratives about ourselves so that we might reframe our perspective to celebrate challenges overcome, doubts erased, and fears undone.

If you are curious about how to reframe the old narrative you’ve been telling yourself and reframe your perception about that narrative, I have a simple 3-part story structure for you to work with.

Think about an old story that’s still rattling around in your brain. 

Complete each of these 3 phrases, in order:  

If you had told me 20 years ago that I would [fill in the blank]

I might have [fill in the blank]

but instead if you could see me now I’m [fill in the blank].

Here’s my story: If you had told me 20 years ago that I would walk 500 miles across Spain estoy solo on pilgrimage I might have derided and dismissed that idea as one for foolish, time-wasting dreamers; but instead if you could see me now (having walked those 500 miles on foot) I’m set free to be me, walking into my own life, fully deserving of what I have loved all along.      

Story Prompt: Now your turn to reframe your narrative, reframe your perspective. Write that story! And tell it out loud!

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Tillamook, Oregon!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Our Pacific Northwest summers are a generous Mother Nature break from the cold, damp darkness of the November to May Rain Festival here on the island. Don’t get me wrong: we know how to keep ourselves warm, dry, comfortable, and engaged in the 6 months of fall and winter; but we appreciate the summer months to the fullest even when rain showers interrupt our plans.

Something Miguel de Cervantes wrote about squalls and good weather reminds me that all is impermanent, nothing endures forever and we will see our way clear - in time:      

“All these squalls to which we have been subjected are signs that the weather will soon improve and things will go well for us, because it is not possible for the bad or the good to endure forever, and from this it follows that since the bad has lasted so long the good is close at hand.” [Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quioxte]

Question: How are you inviting the good that is close at hand? 

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

Hello to you listening in Woodbine, Georgia!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Motivate Your Monday and your host, Diane Wyzga.

Maybe like me you endlessly churn old stories in your head: what you would have said, could have said, or should have said. Gets me nowhere. So, I’m learning how to shift out of my endlessly churning mindset with a farming tip.  

My maternal grandfather left his home in a small Polish village and came to this country as a teenager seeking a better life than the farm he grew up on. Here’s what he used to say: “Diane, there’s no profit in plowing the same furrow twice. Forgive. Forget. Let go. Harvest what’s ahead of you.”

Question: What about you? What’s your best tip for letting go of what no longer works?

You're always welcome: "Come for the stories - Stay for the magic!" Speaking of magic, I hope you’ll subscribe, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, bring your friends and rellies, and join us! You will have wonderful company as we continue to walk our lives together. Be sure to stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website, check out the Communication Services, arrange a free, no-sales Discovery Call, and stay current with me as "Wyzga on Words" on Substack. 

Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  If you found this podcast episode helpful, please consider sharing and attributing it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.