In this episode, we feature two more stories from our World Water Day storytelling event. Storytellers Melanie Joiner and Maya McDoom-Echebiri share how water taught them to navigate life's most challenging transitions. Melanie reflects on her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, where water scarcity and a trusted friendship transformed how she understood gratitude and connection. Maya shares her journey through sudden job loss and the tsunamis of grief that followed. Through this experience, she learned to flow like water, releasing what no longer served her to become fully herself again.

These renewal stories remind us that we must let go before we can to see the way forward, and that we have much to gain from life’s most challenging experiences.

The Flame Tree Story podcast is produced by Story First Design.

This episode of the Flame Tree Story podcast features two stories from our World Water Day storytelling event in March, where stories focused on the theme of renewal.

Storytellers Hope Wilder and Nancy Luberoff reveal how water can be a teacher through life's most difficult passages—from navigating grief and loss to discovering healing and new beginnings. Hope takes us to the Eno River, where the ever-changing waters witnessed the end of one love and the start of another. Nancy shares how burial rituals can become sacred practices of honoring life itself. These stories remind us that water carries us from grief to healing, teaching us that renewal is always possible.

The Flame Tree Story podcast is produced by Story First Design.

In this episode, we continue sharing stories from our International Day of Persons with Disabilities event, where storytellers explored what it means to be truly seen in community.

Storytellers Carolyn Stuart, Indigo Dutton, and Danny Steis reveal how connection deepens when communities intentionally make space for everyone's unique contributions—from an incarcerated man finding purpose through training a medical assistance dog, to a music community that transformed itself so everyone could participate, to a room that created silence so one person's voice could be fully heard. These stories show us the power of being seen and the gift of purposeful presence.

Hosts Whitney Fry and Mike Myers reflect on what it takes to create community where everyone belongs—and the healing that happens when we do.

The Flame Tree Story podcast is produced by Story First Design.