From Sparks to Light - Inspiring Stories for Challenging Times

This is part 9 of a special series focusing on the community of Honoring Our Experience, a program of  San Francisco’s Shanti Project, and their work with long-term survivors of the HIV/AIDS virus. “I think that's the purpose of volunteer work," says Lilian Talero of her work with the HIV/AIDS immigrant community. "We think, ‘I'm going to give my time for free. I'm going to do this for [other] people,’ but all I'm doing is healing. Through the time that I'm giving. Through the work with others. I'm not giving anything. Honestly, we're getting so much." Lililana Talera immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Bogota, Columbia after her mother's death from endometrial cancer. In the challenging and heartbreaking final years of her mother's life, Liliana was by her side, caring for her through the darkest of times. That loss prompted a crisis for Liliana, a young, single woman who had dedicated her life to her family. With the help of a few “guardian angels”, Liliana struggled for months to reclaim her life and then,  a shocking diagnosis of HIV and her own endometrial cancer brought her to a crossroads. She faced a difficult question. Would she give up and prepare to die or choose life, and the challenges that would follow.  This is the story of that choice. Of Liliana’s courage to face uncertainty, and her journey to find meaning and purpose that would eventually sustain her. As you listen to this episode, consider: * Liliana speaks of the angels in her life, people who stood by her in her darkest hours. Who are the angels in your life? * How can you be an angel for someone today?  * Self care is a priority for those who dedicate their lives to helping others. How do you take care of your own physical and mental health? Learn more about Honoring Our Experience here [https://www.saratogasprings.com/retreats/HonoringOurExperience.html]. Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light. To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website [https://www.robertmaggio.com/]. To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website [https://www.suzannemaggio.com/]. To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago [https://adelaidebooks.org/products/estrellas-moments-of-illumination-along-el-camino-de-santiago?_pos=1&_sid=7e72e99f5&_ss=r] Follow Suzanne on Social Media * Instagram @suzannemaggio_author * Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author * Threads @suzannemaggio_author

“Just getting to hear her life story was so incredible, the difficult things she’s been through in her life —it really puts it into perspective… it makes me just want to ask any senior I talk to, ‘What is your story?’ because everyone has a story.” - Lee Stumbaugh As we begin the spring semester of From Sparks to Light, I have a special treat for you. I’m joined today by a few of my students, Jenn, Mikayla and Lee, who were a part of my fall semester Careers in Psychology class.  One of the assignments of the class is to engage in what we call in education, service learning. Service learning involves going out into the community to engage in service and then coming back into the classroom to discuss that experience through weekly writing and discussion. Today Jenn, Mikayla and Lee are here to talk about their experience. What they did. How it felt to give back. What they learned from the experience and finally, they offer their advice for anyone listening who is wondering how and if to get involved. Let me tell you how proud I am of them and their classmates who give hundreds of hours of service to our community each semester. They really are the future. Welcome Jenn, Mikayla and Lee. Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light. To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website [https://www.robertmaggio.com/]. To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website [https://www.suzannemaggio.com/]. To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago [https://adelaidebooks.org/products/estrellas-moments-of-illumination-along-el-camino-de-santiago?_pos=1&_sid=7e72e99f5&_ss=r] Follow Suzanne on Social Media * Instagram @suzannemaggio_author * Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author * Threads @suzannemaggio_author

“Hi, My name is Matt and I’m a teacher. Today I’m going to tell you a story about a sticky note.” Perhaps, like me, you’re one of the more than 345K followers who tune in to Instagram or Tik Tok to hear one of Mr. Eich’s wildly popular stories about his students. Matt Eicheldinger is an author and sixth grade language arts teacher who has amassed a treasure trove of stories, lessons that  help him, and us, learn what it means to be fully human. Stories are, as he quotes author Jason Reynolds, baked-in empathy machines. “I happen to have a really good memory from my childhood,” he says of his new found superpower. “I remember lots of embarrassing moments… and so [one day] I told my class, if I tell you an embarrassing story, will you do what I ask?”  Needless to say they said yes. He placed a jar in his classroom and filled it with stories from his own life, sharing them with his students. It was that first collection of stories from his own life that formed the basis for his first book, Matt Sprouts and the Curse of Ten Broken Toes.  But over the years of teaching, his collection of stories grew to include anecdotes from his time with his students. His new book, Sticky Notes, captures them in narrative form. Matt Eicheldinger, or Mr. Eich, as he is known to his students, is a teacher, storyteller and author of three books, Matt Sprouts and the Curse of Ten Broken Toes, Matt Sprouts and the Day Nora Ate the Sun and Sticky Notes, Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children, and tries to create new adventures with them whenever possible. When he's not writing, you can find him telling students stories in his classroom, or trail running along the Minnesota River Bottoms. As you listen to this episode, consider: * We all have favorite stories from our childhood. What is one that opened your eyes and heart to a new way of understanding?  * In his story “Phillip”, Matt talks about the power of the pause. Where can you find places in your own life to pause and open yourself up to something surprising? * “Stories are baked-in empathy machines,” says Jason Reynolds, the author and former Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. How can we use the power of story to create a more compassionate world? Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light. To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website [https://www.robertmaggio.com/]. To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website [https://www.suzannemaggio.com/]. To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago [https://adelaidebooks.org/products/estrellas-moments-of-illumination-along-el-camino-de-santiago?_pos=1&_sid=7e72e99f5&_ss=r] Follow Suzanne on Social Media * Instagram @suzannemaggio_author * Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author * Threads @suzannemaggio_author

This is part 8 of a special series focusing on the community of Honoring Our Experience, and their work with long-term survivors of the HIV/AIDS virus. “I was a reluctant activist,” says Vince Crisostomo of the humble beginnings of his advocacy for LGBTQ communities. He’d done his share of sitting by the bedsides of friends and community members as they succumbed to the deadly virus, but it would be a few more years until he would step into a role he has now occupied for more than 30 years. An invitation to return to his native Guam on World AIDS Day changed all that. They were looking for a gay Chamorro who was HIV positive to speak. “Oh my God that’s me,” he thought, but he dismissed it outright. Surely there was someone else, he mused to a friend. But it was his time. A time to lean into the moment.  He didn’t want to regret the chances he didn’t take.  Now, more than three decades later, he has committed his life to the healing power of community. Vince Crisostomo is a gay Chamorro (Pacific Islander) long-term HIV/AIDS survivor  He is passionate about bringing health care to all and social justice equity to people of every sexual identity, HIV status, gender, race and age.  Vince is currently SFAF’s Director of Aging Services and is seated on the SF Human Rights Commission’s LGBTQI+ Advisory Committee and California State Equity on Aging Committee. As you listen to this episode, consider: * Where are the opportunities to step forward, even reluctantly, to make a difference? * What kind of world do we want to “age in to?” What is one thing we can do to work towards that vision? * Vince talks about making optimistic choices?  What is one optimistic choice you can make today?  Learn more about Honoring Our Experience here [https://www.saratogasprings.com/retreats/HonoringOurExperience.html]. Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light. To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website [https://www.robertmaggio.com/]. To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website [https://www.suzannemaggio.com/]. To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago [https://adelaidebooks.org/products/estrellas-moments-of-illumination-along-el-camino-de-santiago?_pos=1&_sid=7e72e99f5&_ss=r] Follow Suzanne on Social Media * Instagram @suzannemaggio_author * Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author * Threads @suzannemaggio_author

“There’s a longing that runs through our species. People are so hungry for belonging and recognition.” Irwin Keller was in third grade when he knew he wanted to be a rabbi, but it would be many years before he would heed his calling. Along the way he became a lawyer and gay rights advocate and a marginally famous singing drag queen for 21 years with America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, the Kinsey Sicks [http://www.kinseysicks.com/]. With war raging in the middle east and a fractured world around us, we talk about the desire to find connection to something greater than ourselves, a way to lean into a sense of compassion and kindness and the courage to sit with uncertainty.  Rabbi Irwin Keller is the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom [https://www.nershalom.org/] in Sonoma County, California. The author of Shechinah at the Art Institute, a collection of memoir, essay and poetry that aims to bring the reader closer to the divine. As you listen to this interview, consider: * The last ten years or so have brought some significant challenges to many of our lives. Where do you look to find peace in times of profound distress?  * Many of us have had religious experiences that have caused us deep pain and yet, we long for sense of spiritual connection, something that touches us and gives us a connection to something bigger than ourselves.  Where do you find that in your life? What, if any, role does religion or spirituality play in that? * How might we reinvent old practices, rituals, and ceremonies to allow us to find new meaning in them, changes that might create the possibility of seeing ourselves more deeply in the practice? To learn more about Rabbi Keller, visit his website [https://www.irwinkeller.com/about-2]. You can read more from Rabbi Irwin here. [http://irwinkeller.com/] You can purchase Shechinah at the Art Institute here [https://www.amazon.com/Shechinah-Art-Institute-Irwin-Keller/dp/1421835592]. Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light. To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website [https://www.robertmaggio.com/]. To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website [https://www.suzannemaggio.com/]. To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago [https://adelaidebooks.org/products/estrellas-moments-of-illumination-along-el-camino-de-santiago?_pos=1&_sid=7e72e99f5&_ss=r] Follow Suzanne on Social Media * Instagram @suzannemaggio_author * Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author * Threads @suzannemaggio_author