Finnish storytellers/poets/singers would offer their words in pairs. Two bards would sit face-to-face, holding hands and rocking back and forth as first one spoke and then the other. Frequently, their words would duplicate. In this way, the Kalevala was passed from one generation to another.

Amelia and I have begun a discipline that resembles that ancient and lasting story-telling. I write something about our ancestral search. She reads my offering and makes a response. My words are often stories or research. Hers are poems. Hers change how I see the world.

With one generation and nearly 40 years difference in perspective between us, our words – even when on the same topic – frolic against one another.

The image above is what remains of the front cover of the Bible my great-grandma Lisa (the grandma who grew up in Finn Forest) gave to my mother. When I was nine, my mother passed it on to me. It is full of stories. When I opened it at random this evening three days before leaving for Finn Forest, I read the words “Many are called but few are chosen” (“What does that mean?” I thought) and then the words “wither thou goest, I will go.”

Where are we going? What will our words open for others?

The first of my entries is called “Velho and Christian Too”; the response from Mia (Amelia) is “Bottled Potions.”