The Magpie Spoke to Me (How the Stories We Tell Shape Our World)

A profound exploration of the power of storytelling to shape our shared reality, reveal our fundamental interbeing, and transform our future for the better.

Stories show us who we really are. Really good stories show us what it means to be alive. This is a book about storytelling. A book that explores how the stories we tell shape the realities we live in. What if our most far-fetched stories, the ones we dismiss, sideline, and even pathologize, could be doorways to a better future?

In The Magpie Spoke to Me, Zen priest and acclaimed novelist Bonnie Nadzam confronts the dominant narrative of our time—that of separation between self and other, between humanity and nature—and shows us that different stories are possible. People around the world are meeting this era of upheaval, grief, and environmental destruction with tales of possibility, wonder, and hope. We hear from Indigenous healers, Buddhist teachers, artists, poets, musicians, students, professors, scientists, doctors, workers, parents, and children—a chorus of voices celebrating the interconnection of all life on Earth.

This is a book about relationships—with people, plants, animals, minerals, and all other manner of beings. A book that invites us to embrace creative practice and imagination. A book that explores what it means to be fully human. Together, we might begin to write a new chapter of our human story.

Included are contributions from Jane Hirshfield, Joan Halifax, Aimee Bender, Laura van den Berg, Deb Olin Unferth, Wendy Egyoku Roshi, Beowulf Sheehan, Curtis White, and more.