In this Story... with Joanne Greene

By: Joanne Greene
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  • 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.
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Biographies & Memoirs Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • 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!
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    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.
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    3 mins
  • Nature and Forest Therapy

    Nature and Forest Therapy
    Nov 22 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, I sign up to be a nature and forest therapy guide. I’m Joanne Greene.
    A drastic response to the presidential election? Actually no. But I’m sure glad that I registered for the six-month intensive course a month or so ago. Allow me to explain.
    Forest therapy is inspired by forest bathing, which was founded and developed in Japan, under the name Shirin-yoku, in the 1980’s. Apparently going from a primarily agrarian economy to one in which most people spent 10-20 hours each day in front of a computer screen was resulting in poor health outcomes. The idea was that getting Japanese citizens out into nature on a regular basis would lower blood pressures and boost immune systems. And, what do you know, it worked. Since then, numerous studies, in Japan, in the U.S. and throughout Europe, have arrived at the same results. The science is well documented in the book “The Nature Fix: why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative” by Florence Williams.
    Forest bathing is largely focused on health outcomes and participants are medically tested before and after the three hour immersive experience to prove the benefits. I’m working with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy which broadens the focus from human health to the interconnectedness of all living things – including beings in the non-human world – like trees, plants, insects, birds, and wild animals. If we’re going to protect this planet, it’s important that we think beyond ourselves.
    In the course, I practice sitting still, in one spot, and notice what’s happening. On forest therapy walks, I spend 15 minutes focusing on what’s in motion, and then share my experience with the group. The forest is the therapist; as guides, we’re there to open doors. Rather than trying to direct the experience of participants, we offer invitations. “Perhaps you’d like to wander down a trail and look for something that calls out to you. Then, consider stopping and notice what you see, hear, and feel.”
    There are clear parameters to a forest therapy walk but within the designated framework, that’s been thoughtfully developed over many years, there’s much opportunity for the guide to add make it her own.
    Once certified, I’ll be able to take groups into natural places and help individuals to slow down and hopefully have a liminal experience, where time is altered and a sense of well being results.
    Right now, I love hiking but years from now, if my mobility is compromised, I still want to be able to spend time in wild places. It’s where I find peace, where my creativity flows, where I remember to prioritize what’s most important. To learn more about this experience, check out anft.earth.
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    4 mins

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