In this Story... with Joanne Greene

By: Joanne Greene
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Joanne Greene shares her flash nonfiction, each essay with custom music, showcasing tales and observations from her animated life. Her book, "By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go" is now available as a paperback, e-book, and audiobook from Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, and your local independent book seller.
    GreeneCreative
    Show More Show Less
Biographies & Memoirs Social Sciences
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2
Episodes
  • The Meaning of Showing Up

    The Meaning of Showing Up
    Jan 10 2025
    In this story, the meaning of showing up. I’m Joanne Greene.
    My eldest cousin passed away. He was 91. We knew it was coming. But that doesn’t make it any easier for his one and only daughter, who valiantly navigated caring for him from afar as his condition deteriorated and his undaunting spirit led him to continue working in his legal practice, attempting to drive, and making questionable decisions that led to numerous ER visits and hospital stays. He remained in Boston, the city in which he lived his whole life while she, her husband and identical twin 6 year old daughters were living in Bogata, Colombia. She spent countless hours online and on the phone, arranging drivers, speaking to doctors, and looking into how to help her father feel valued and of service as his health worsened. And she succeeded beyond measure.
    I knew that I’d show up whenever I could be helpful. That’s what we do if we understand that giving is what makes life meaningful. It’s what I most value at this stage of my life – showing up for the people I love. Being present. Sharing both the joy and the pain that come simultaneously if we’re paying attention and living authentically. How, you might ask, could I find satisfaction in clearing out my cousin’s bathroom cabinets? That simple act, shared with his daughter’s mother in law (because she, too, shows up) afforded me some intimacy with my cousin while crossing one more item off his daughter’s to do list. My cousin and I were not close, we didn’t grow up together as we were twenty years apart. But we had shared lifelong memories of holiday celebrations – thanksgiving dinners and Passover seders….an annual tradition of checking on who won our respective neighboring high school football games. At his funeral, I relished sharing the memory of him relentlessly teasing my sister about her losing their annual bet about said football game and how was she going to repay her debt to him.
    Family holds unique importance for me, for many of us. It’s our original blueprint, the people with and from whom we form our initial view of life and what matters. I credit my aunts, uncles, and cousins with helping to form my sense of humor, my work ethic, my intellectual curiosity, and love of tradition. As an elder, now, I try to foster and model that for my siblings’ children and grandchildren, and certainly my own descendants. Our families look different today. Rather than living blocks away or in adjacent towns, we’re scattered across the state and, often, the globe. honoring different cultural traditions as well as our own. Our worlds both expand and contract as we easily Facetime bridging the distance and time difference to celebrate together, to share in joy….to join family members in pain or hardship in whatever way we can.
    I received so many tender condolences over my cousin’s passing and for that I am very grateful. But the truth is, I wasn’t in pain. He had a great sendoff, honored for his countless contributions to the lives of many. It was my privilege to help however I could, to further cement the bonds of family, to catch up with the generation now in college and newly forging career paths, to share fond memories and to model the very behavior that I learned from those who came before me. We show up. We celebrate together and we grieve together. That makes life ever more precious and blesses all of us with lasting riches.

    Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • A Look Ahead to 2025

    A Look Ahead to 2025
    Dec 20 2024
    In this story, a look ahead to 2025. I’m Joanne Greene.Vision boards are easy. You look through magazines and find photos of places you’d like to go, outfits you’d see yourself wearing, cars you’d want to drive, vacations you’d like to take.

    When creating a verbal vision board, there are no suggestions, no ideas from which to choose. You’re making the cake from scratch, without a mix or a recipe.

    2025 sounds like the far-off future, yet it’s moments away. In 1979, I hosted a radio show called “The 80’s”, filled with interviews and speculation on where things were headed. Five years later, I could hardly believe we’d made it to 1984. George Orwell surely had a few things right.

    What I couldn’t have imagined, years ago, was Waymo, the robot car as my 3-year-old grandson calls it. I couldn’t have conceived of artificial intelligence, where my skills as both a voice over talent and a writer would be supplanted by a free service, available to all, in seconds.

    While in high school, I read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, a book published in 1962 which exposed the dangers of the pesticide DDT & questioned our collective faith in technology. Carson, among others, sowed the seeds of the environmental movement, which grew against the odds. I came of age being skeptical of corporations looking the other way when concern threatened profits, ad campaigns that convinced us chemicals were safe. Natural settings called to me, though they were not the natural habitat of my childhood, just outside of Boston, where I spent more time in movie theaters, bowling alleys and department stores. As a teenager it became clear that I could breathe more freely outdoors, that I could think more clearly surrounded by trees and bodies of water. I moved to California post college and grew to love hiking, finding both solace and adventure in wild places.

    In 2025, I will become certified as a nature and forest therapy guide, spending more and more of my time communing with plants, insects, and animals, finding peace in stillness, slowing down enough to notice what most of us, including me, generally miss. I imagine bringing groups of people into natural places and, with any luck, guiding at least some of them into liminal experiences that ground them and expose them to new parts of themselves.

    After a career in radio journalism, more than a decade running out of the box Jewish programs at a community center, and publishing a memoir, I could not have predicted that this is what my next chapter would be. It’s about listening to that still, small voice within and taking a risk. I rarely regret the moves I make when I trust my gut. Here’s to new beginnings and a very happy, healthy, growth-filled, new year!

    Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • Earning a Middle Aged Woman Badge

    Earning a Middle Aged Woman Badge
    Dec 6 2024
    Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!

    In this story, what it takes to earn a “Middle Aged Woman” badge. I’m Joanne Greene.
    Back in the early to mid 60’s I was a Bluebird and then, a Campfire Girl. We wore cute little red vests adorned with badges that our moms sewed onto the sides after we completed various challenges. If I’d been in charge, we’d have sewed those badges on ourselves – to get a sewing badge, of course. I vaguely recall sewing badges onto my son’s boy scout shirt but, since I hadn’t practiced in an effort to earn that badge, I kept sticking myself.
    What if there were a badge one could earn for being a full-fledged “Middle Aged Woman”? An ideal Middle Aged Woman, that is, one who does and says all the right things and knows when to keep her mouth shut. Currently, girl scouts can receive badges for being caring and considerate (at home, at school, and with friends)…for respecting oneself and others (difficult to measure, of course)…and for using resources wisely (reducing use, reusing materials, and recycling).
    Arriving at middle age, as a woman, probably means that you still send hand-written thank you notes, that you moisturize, that you take it upon yourself to ensure that everyone around you is happy or at least not in pain at all times, that you’ve learned to pick your battles at home and at work, that you strategically let things slide, that you take the blame when you make a mistake and don’t point fingers when someone else messes up.
    But I would submit that there are other defining criteria. I, for instance, would like to get credit for making sure that the refrigerator contains food that every family member would enjoy, for feeling obligated to take on a volunteer role at the school, church, synagogue, sports team or at least go somewhat overboard when it’s my turn to bring snack. A middle aged woman is on the cusp of caring less what others think. Have I shared with you the graph of age & (pardon the expression) “give a shit”? The older a woman gets, the less she feels the need to impress. But we’re not talking about older women. Not yet, anyway.

    Middle aged women dress in layers because too cold is often followed by too hot. We might color our hair, wear make-up, or get Botox injections and, then again, we might opt for a daily yoga pants and stained sweatshirt look with a baseball cap or a beanie in winter. The point is middle aged women get to decide. And, these days, as some of our basic rights are being threatened, it’s the all the more important to make wise choices. To stand up for what we believe in. To defend the rights of others. I, of course, am no longer middle aged but, in truth, I care more than ever and I don’t need no stinkin’ badges to prove it.
    Show More Show Less
    3 mins

What listeners say about In this Story... with Joanne Greene

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available