This month I had the pleasure of performing my original monologue, Wise Woman of the Mill, as part of a monologue showcase online. (You can watch my monologue performance here https://youtu.be/kgSn1kZC5Ss.) When I watched the recording of my performance, I found myself listening to the Mistress of Story as if she were speaking her wisdom directly to me. Because this month, I’ve had some health challenges, tests ordered, changes of prescriptions, and been told I have to drink less water. Less water? Water is so good for us, isn’t it? How can we ever drink too much? Well, a doctor insists, for now, that I severely restrict my water intake. And this goes against all my natural impulses. And, how dry my mouth is. How thirsty I feel.
I wrote and performed the Mistress of Story monologue, hoping her voice and message would reach an audience. I’m delighted to find that I am also in the audience, appreciating the wisdom she is sharing with me.
Wise Woman of the Mill
A Monologue by Jane Knox
Welcome to my windmill, friends. Yes, I am the one called the Mistress of the Ancient Mill. You have heard, undoubtedly, that this ancient windmill is a place that calls forth stories that heal. Do come in, and sit with me––but watch your head, this
doorway is low. I will brew some tea. Help yourself to anise cookies and oranges, while the blades of my mill spin high above us! The archetype of story is like the air, never-ending or beginning, ever turning reels of tales. Like windmills that circulate our air, stories mix and move multitudes of images that unwind flowing into forms. Like the cycle of life, windmills circle, moving imaginal medleys with universal underpinnings. Like the air, stories saturate life. As the windmill churns the wind, family stories rotate in never-ending, overlapping rings. Like windmills––whose spinning blades drive the wind and create power––stories generate energy. Images in every story stir those who listen. Go ahead. Let your blades turn, and I will listen.
The Mistress of Story is showing me what I need. I need the windmill to move some air in a direction that brings me healing. The wind is shifting some of the negative factors that I perceive as real. And it is spinning them into new, positive images – new images of my body, healthy and vibrant. It’s highly unlikely that the doctor is going to find some rare and awful problem that caused my blood pressure to go up. And, maybe it’s much healthier to be consuming less water because too much water causes a loss of sodium. Maybe this is just very fortuitous to find out. Maybe my belief that unlimited water consumption as being healthy is incorrect. If so, how lucky I am to find that out now. How fortunate I am to have performed the Mistress of Story’s wisdom and to accept it for myself. I hope the Mistress of Story will be an inspiration to you when you are in need of healing. I hope you’ll trust she is always there, in her mill, listening to you.