Why Old Stories Stay With Us

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Dear listeners, you know, there's something about the stories that we inherit that never quite leaves us. They sit quietly in the back of our minds. These fragments of folklore and family legend waiting for the right moment to resurface. Like something they come back as half-remembered phrases, our grandparents used to say. And sometimes, if they were paying attention, they reshape entirely like how we see ourselves and the world we thought we knew. So today we are sitting with someone who decided to dig into those old roots and see what grew. So welcome back to another powerful episode of Mind Meets Machine. I'm your host, Avik, and this is the podcast where we slow down long enough to notice the patterns that shape how we think, feel, and shape uh and make sense of being human. And today we have a very lovely guest. Please welcome Tori Rose. So welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Thank you for having me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Amazing. Amazing. So, Tori, like before we get into the discussion, I'll quickly love to introduce with all the listeners. So, dear listeners, Tori is an indie author whose debut novel weaves fantasy and mystery through the threads of ancestral folklore, creating stories that feel both timeless and deeply personal. So I I won't take much of a time. Let's get

Folklore As Identity Not Entertainment

SPEAKER_00 1:28

started. So, in like, I mean, a lot of people think that folklore and mythology are just the old stories that we tell for the entertainment relics of a simpler time. But you have built an entire novel around the idea that these stories carry something more, something that still matters. So, what do you think we misunderstand about the role these ancestral tales play in our livestream?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Well, what I have found, Habik, is that we, you know, before there was TV and radio, our ancestors used to communicate around a campfire or, you know, strolling minstrels, depends on where they are, and they tell their stories. That's how they communicated with each other. That's how stories were told. Before this busy world of, you know, watching TV and letting people tell us who we are, the commercials, we're bombarded with all this information. And what I notice is that if we go back, if we our childhood, just in conversation, it doesn't, you know, you know, for me, I forgot that the stories my parents told me really resonate. It shaped me. And speaking to other people around the world, other cultures, not only do they shape that culture, but it also showed me how interconnected we are if we told our own stories, not allow media to tell us who we are. And I feel, and I deeply know this for myself, is that when we go about telling our own stories, it's much more powerful than giving it to someone else to tell our story. And that's another reason I decided to be an indie author, because you try to fit yourself into all these different genres and and and and you know, everything's trying to shape you instead of us as people shaping the world. And so it's powerful. And if we go back to that, and I see people doing that, you know, just in mind the conversations, you know, you could be riding a train or or speaking to someone at work and and they do something, maybe they throw salt over their shoulder or something, and and you say, Oh, my mother used to do that, or you know, or something's very similar, like leave the windows open or close the blinds, you know, so that electricity won't come through. It's powerful

Motherhood Sparks Lost Memories

SPEAKER_01 3:46

stuff.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

So, I mean, you know, like when you started, when you started pulling from your ancestors' folklore, was there a kind of moment like where a story you did always known suddenly revealed something new, like something you hadn't seen before?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Hmm. Very interesting question. Yes, in two ways. When I had my children, that's when those stories really subject to flood back to me. And many, many times when you have children or if you are around young people and they they want to know about you. My my my my mother had passed on by the time I had my children, and so they always wanted to know what was grandma like. So instead of just telling, so when I told them about her, I used to tell her about tell them about her stories and how she would take us on nature walks to slow us down as children, and she'd take us into the woods and she'd talk about her, her past and what her parents told her. And I realized at that moment when I was telling my children about how my my mother took us on on nature walks that she was actually telling me her origin story of her people. Okay, because she would say we would be in the woods, and she goes, you know, she says, My people believe that we were born, came up through a mound in the earth, and that's how we were born. And we came out, and when we came out, we were we dried in the sun, and then here we and that's how people came to Earth, and how powerful it was to connect, always stay connected to nature because nature would teach us what to eat, what not to eat. She would take us on these walks, and as I'm telling this to my to my children, something came to mind. I had the TV on one night, just folding clothes, and I I was on the history channel, and this was powerful to me, and this is why I decided to write this down. They were talking about what if the history we are told about the human race that we're looking for the Big Bang and all these things, that it came about another way. And they happened to be talking about the Choctaw, which was my mother's people. And there is an actual mound in Mississippi that they they believe this is where they came from. And then from my African side, she used to, my mother used to tell us, you know, she at night she'd take us all not only on daytime walks, she'd take us on nighttime walls, and she pointed to the sky and she said, You see those seven stars? She goes, That's where we came from. And this is how it just all came back to me. And then I started watching TV, the history channels, H and Aliens. I'm thinking, Oh my god, these are the stories my mother told me.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

That's interesting. I mean, I'm I'm remembering about my childhood, like when I also used to hear this, that, okay. Like, I mean, uh mostly used to happen during the summertime. Like, but I mean, at so basically what happens is like at night after you had your dinner, uh, we used to go at the rooftop. So it's like it's open and there are a lot of breeze going on. So you sit and you'll show that okay, see, this is a star and all those ones, right? So I just I was just trying to connect that part. So it is I mean, it's just really great. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for making me remember all those all those childhood moments. But I mean, it's it's it's really interesting because how stories can hide in the plain sight, right? Uh that that way, and we hear them so many times, they become the kind of background noise, and then one day the meaning shifts, and we realize that they were never about what what we thought were about.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

So, yeah, and and and just that what you what you just shared. This is what I mean. When I talk to different cultures, we all have a similar story. Here we go around the world, and we all have a similar story. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

So you describe your work as uh digging up the old roots, and the phrases they suggest something beneath the surface, like something that takes efforts to uncover, right? So when you think

When History Is Taken Away

SPEAKER_00 7:52

when you think about why these stories get kind of forgotten uh in the first place, like then uh what do you see as the Jeep pattern there? Like what makes us lose those touch with this narratives that once held so much meaning?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I tried to show it in the story when I wrote in a wider way. And and I'll try to answer this as simply as I can.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

As the world got bigger and we started interconnecting, I found that even though we were similar, all cultures are similar. Our myths are, you know, there's the cosmic egg, right? Every mythology has that and all these things. I personally feel, and my mother used to say this, and I say it in the story, when you don't know your history, when your history is taken from you, and someone tells, tells you, no, this is your history, what you remember is not true. It kind of you it you kind of lose part of yourself. And when you lose part of yourself, you lose your power. And this is what the story is about, and digging up old roots to know who you really are. You that's the magic. Because once you are free and you have you know who you are, and no one can tell you who you are. And I'll say this, and I hope the listeners get this. My mother used to say, You are a child of the universe first, who happened to be on a planet as this, you know, you all these labels you get to yourself. But more importantly, you're a child of the universe. So when that's taken from you culturally from around the world, indigenous cultures around the world, when they are taken over by bigger forces, then you lose your power and it shrinks you if you lose, if you lose your history. And that's why it's important to remember those, those ancestral tales. Because for me, and I think for many cultures around the world, I don't care where you come from, that's your truth. And when you have your truth, there's your power. In my story, I show the Fairland family who rediscover that on their land is not only the connection with nature, where long time ago, a lot of cultures believe they can communicate. And now more and more people realize yes, trees are sentinet, they are interconnected, and underneath is the real world, is the real power if you slow down to listen. And and it's bary because if only a handful of people are telling you, going back to what I was saying about TV, if they're telling you who you are, you're losing who you are yourself and and and this and you're gone. Yeah. So you have to dig it up, you know. Be it, you know, some people say, you know, when I went to therapy or I had to go talk to someone, the more I uncovered things, I felt more powerful. And that's the magic, knowing who you are. And that's why it's important for us to hold on to our roots. It's easy. People think if you hold on to your individuality, your roots, and where you come from, that means you're not assimilating somehow. But it really is like a soup. It makes us all more powerful as a people. So the smaller, and and then in my story, I show there's only a handful of eight families that created this massive network of hiding who we really were because they wanted the power, because they forgot who they were. And they were taking it from other all other cultures, thinking, okay, how do you do that? I do know there's a a story when the indigenous people in America were being forced to be on reservations. I know everyone has told about the trails of tears and they were marched from Mississippi, my parents' hometown to Oklahoma, where my father's people and back again. They were not allowed to do their ghost dances because people were afraid. Like, what are they doing? It's so it's so different. They were more powerful. They were cre they were, you know, getting their their energy up just to keep themselves going. The African people coming over on slave ships, you know, that you you you remove their their who they are and and where they came from. It makes it makes you small. But once you found your voice, and I found writing this this book and expanding on my mother's theories or stories, I felt more powerful as a person. It really did. And so the whole story, that's why it's the mystery, because for a long time the the family, it's a family saga. They they felt like they needed to be quiet. Even they felt they needed to be quiet for fear of being harmed because that's the way it used to

Doubt And The Indie Author Path

SPEAKER_01 12:15

be.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

I definitely want to also ask you about like creating something that draws on the ancestral memory can be deeply meaningful, but it's it's also vulnerable work, right? There are probably moments when doubt creeps in, when you wonder that if you are getting it right or if anyone will care. So, how do you handle those setbacks and at the same time, like what keeps you returning to this work, even when it feels hard or kind of uncertain?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Sure. And I have to tell you, many a nights I think, why am I doing this? Okay. Originally, when I started writing it, my son, um like my daughter, didn't want me to read from a book. He wanted me to tell him a story. So that's how it built. He actually named this book, Secret of the Family Tree. He did, you know, because he says, Wow, mom, you know, this is because he I tell him something, he'd go to the playground and he says, My mother said, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, he goes, It's a secret. And I say, Oh, because yeah, he goes, Yeah, but they they like that story. They like that. Tell me more. So I'd hear his voice every time I wanted to put put it aside. And I'm thinking, people are gonna write it. And and then my family, I have family. And they says, No, you know, I was so originally I was writing it for myself, no one to read, no one to put it. I'm just writing it down, my family's stories. I didn't want it to get lost. So I kept writing it. So that's what kept me going. And then when I wrote it, someone says, You should put it out there. Other people, you know, will like it. And I said, Well, I'll do it as a fantasy of children's novel, you know. And but I was finding more adults liked the story, even though it's told through a 12 and 11-year-old eyes. It really is a family saga because their parents and their and their ancestors were all feeding into that pot. So that's what keep me keeps me going. Even now, you know, people will say, What do you mean? I'm thinking it's it's a story. I love it. So I write it mo mostly for me. And if someone cares to share the journey with me, great. And that's how it keeps me going. And doubt, yes, because I'm thinking, oh, I have to get this right, I have to get this right. And I'm thinking, it's how can it be wrong? It's my story. Going back to people telling you, even within your own culture, I'm not sure if that's correct. Well, that's the story my mom told me. What you know, and and what I said to them, what did your mom tell you? Oh, yeah, it's similar. It was kind of similar. I went to lovely, I went to Ireland, and my mother used to talk about the little people when they dance. You know, the indigenous people either will look down. I says, Why are they looking down, mom? She says, Because they don't want to, they're dancing with the little people. And when I went to Ireland in the 80s and I, you know, learned about, you know, their myth of the le of course, the elf and folk and leprechauns, and it's in my book. Every culture has a little person, a woodland, the knockers, you know, it's there. And I find that's what people connect to. And that's what gives me the story was only supposed to be a one and done, but it it's it's it is a trilogy. And it's in this a blast writing it.

Tell Your Story And Share It

SPEAKER_00 15:10

So if you have to give one advice to the listeners today, uh, what will you give?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

To tell their story. It's important, especially in today's world, that we share our stories. People talk at each other. And if we say, hey, you know, you know, you know, I I do this a lot, I says, Where'd that come from? Where would you get that sweater? You know, this is you know, I remember that pattern. The conversation is so fluid, you know, it's a questioning instead of saying, again, going back to letting people tell you this is who you are, say, hey, this is what what I used to do. Even even cooking, you know, if you're cooking, you know, with with other people, pot lugs, hey, my mother used to make this with this, oh, my mother used to make this with that. And he then you start on the story. I remember when we made this, and she would, you know, we all add something to the pot, and it's great. And so my my my advice or message I would love for listeners to hear is that tell your story, even if you don't write it down, don't get discouraged. If you want an agent, get an agent. You don't want an agent, write it down. There's so many avenues now where you can just put your story out there. If you don't want to write, you want to be a storyteller, create a podcast and just keep telling a story every day, adding on to it. If you don't, if you're not one to want to write a book, create a podcast about story. Or just you. I personally feel that brings the world together in the most beautiful way. And it's taking back our magic. You know, people say, I feel more powerful. Not only is it taking it back our power, but it's bringing back magic. Creativity is magic, and we are born creative people. Instead of just sitting in a cubicle and doing something, we are creative people. And if we don't do this, it's almost like for me, it's like I'm suffocating. I have got I get up in the middle of the night and I'm writing, you know, because of thought. I have so many little stories. So if anything, write, tell the story, dance it. If you're a dancer, Aboriginals in Australia, they don't, they dance their story. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Amazing,

Where To Find Tori Rose

SPEAKER_00 17:09

amazing. So, and if listeners want to connect with you, how they can connect.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

They can go to my website, Tori Rose, T-O-R-O-Y, R-O-S-E.com. Of course, that's H T T P slash forward slash force in the beginning. Go there. You can sign up for my newsletter. My second book to Secret of the Family Tree is coming out this fall. It's called The Many Branches, where the story continues for the Fairland family. And hopefully, when they read and reach out, and I also will be doing some newsletters soon, talking about more. About I want to invite people to come onto a blog and tell their stories. So that's my next step. Yeah. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So, dear listeners, what I'll do is I'll put all the links, details, everything into the show notes for your easy reference so that it can easily reach out to Tori. And I'll just say the stories we inherit are not just the entertainment, they are the maps, mirrors, and sometimes the only proof that we have that what we are feeling has been feeling for. So, Tori, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your perspectives. And I'll just say that, dear listeners, like you just need to be willing to dig a little to sit with it that you find, and also to let those old roots to be willing to kind of teach you something new about who you are. Right. So I'll just say thank you so much for listening to Mind Meets Machine. I'm your host, Avik, and take care of yourselves and each other. I will see you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye bye.