Arizona Speaking
Topics
Lynne Hartke is a storyteller who loves to help others connect to their own places of hope and belonging.
Through stories about adventure, relationships, and purpose, listeners can discover the beauty found in their own desert places.
Spiders and Lizards and Snakes, Oh My!
Creepy, Crawly Stories
“We were four miles away from the car when I came up and over a small hill, a few steps behind my husband, Kevin. He did not see the camouflaged, dusty body of a two-foot diamondback stretched across the trail.
“Snake!” I yelled at the same time he heard the warning rattle.
“Where?”
In a slow-motion dance with danger, Kevin jumped right at the same time the snake moved right.”
-from Lynne’s story, Rattlesnake Season
An encounter with an angry rattler.
A stare-down with a coyote protecting her pups.
A night on a migration path of daddy long-leg spiders.
Poisonous lizards. Poisonous plants.
Hiking across tarantula kingdom.
The trails of Arizona are not for the unprepared.
Through stories, humor, and a bit of tattling on herself and her traveling companions, Lynne will share about some of the creatures that share this amazing desert we all call home.
Note: This is a fun topic for Halloween and the month of October.
A Stack of Stones
Life Lessons Learned on the Trail
“I couldn’t help but think of The Little Engine That Could as I huffed and puffed my way up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, so named because its shape resembles the hump and head of a kneeling camel. With a steady pace and a desire to see the sunrise, my goal had been to make the summit without having to stop and rest, but when my heart began to pump out my eyeballs, I stumbled to a halt to gasp in more oxygen.”
-from Lynne’s story, Welcoming Light
Getting lost. Struggling to reach the summit. Running out of water in the desert.
Sometimes no matter how much we plan, things can go south while out in the wilderness. Those mistakes and failures can become important lessons we carry with us; the stones we collect to create a cairn to mark the way.
With each challenge, Lynne Hartke gathered an important life lesson that became part of a personal cairn for herself and for other sojourners.
(Some areas do not allow cairns. They are considered trail graffiti. In true wilderness situations, a well-placed cairn can be a lifesaver.)
Note: Lynne also gave this talk at a “Lunch and Learn” at an engineering firm in Chandler.
The Gift of Color:
Discovering Beauty Where You Live
“We pulled into a parking lot in Arizona in the middle of a dust storm. The sky was a strange shade of brown. Not the rich color of brewed tea. Not a warm caramel. Not a toasty pecan.
“A hue of washed-out mud filled the sky like an apocalyptic haze. As if the earth had dry-heaved into the heavens.
“Not exactly the color of which dreams were made.”
-From Lynne’s story, Beauty Framed in Barrenness
When Lynne first moved to the desert all she saw was brown, miles and miles of brown. But the desert wooed her with different gifts of color, like prayers of blessing.
The breath-giving oranges in a sunset. The greening of ocotillo after summer rain. The creamy-white saguaro flowers. The brilliant red feathers of a vermillion flycatcher.
Through stories and a Powerpoint of photos, Lynne invites you to open your eyes to discover beauty right where you live.
Note: This could be adapted for a message in December on the gifts of the desert.
Eyes Wide Open:
The Daily Practice of Noticing the Desert’s Micro-Seasons
It can be difficult to maintain a daily rhythm of discovering beauty where you live if the mindset is to escape everyday life and to discover beauty “out there somewhere.”
Lynne Hartke invites you to see nature in a new way—even in the city—by adopting a slow-living guide to following the year through Japan’s example of seventy-two traditional micro-seasons.
Intrigued by this ancient practice of noticing small, seasonal changes, with poetic names like “sparrows begin to build their nests,” and “the first cherry blossoms open,” Lynne Hartke decided to write her own list of micro-seasons for the desert. That list includes “paloverde petals fall like yellow snow,” “pink ironwood flowers appear,” and seventy other moments of wonder.
The result? Training our eyes to see beauty right where we live can also turn our hearts toward gratitude, even in a loud and fast-paced world.
The Poetry of Noticing
Workshop on Seasonal Haiku
In this hands-on poetry workshop, participants are invited to explore the beauty of seasonal changes (see the Seasonal talk notes) through the lens of urban environments.
Lynne Hartke welcomes participants to discover beauty in the changing micro-seasons of the Sonoran Desert. The falling of the yellow paloverde blossoms. The arrival of the white-winged doves. The blooming of the saguaro. Through guided poetry exercises participants will learn to craft vivid imagery that evokes emotion by observing their surroundings.
The workshop can be held completely indoors, or include a nature walk, if applicable.
Natural Gifts of Christmas Wonder
The grandkids might be swimming in the pool, and Chandler might be decorating a Christmas tree made out of tumbleweeds, but the desert has its own natural gifts to share at Christmastime.
Lynne Hartke invites you to listen to Christmas stories, including,
Looking for frankincense trees on South Mountain
Discovering her first desert poinsettias after four decades
Going waterfall chasing in the desert on Christmas Day
If Irving Berlin can write the famous tune, “White Christmas” while hanging out in the sun at the Arizona Biltmore, you are welcome to discover you own holiday cheer in the desert where we live.
