by Michelle Tocher | Jan 12, 2021
Over the holiday, I rediscovered “Down in Yon Forest,” a mysterious old ballad that I performed at the Toronto Storytelling Festival many years ago. I stood alone on stage and sang it in a childlike a cappella voice, imagining it to be sung by an absolute...
by Michelle Tocher | Dec 21, 2020
Early this morning I woke thinking about the steadfast tin soldier. He often comes to me at Christmas time, that noble fellow who has lost a leg in the manufacturing process. The boys who play on the floor with the soldiers don’t use the one-legged soldier, so he’s...
by Michelle Tocher | Nov 19, 2020
Every now and then I hear about the flights that my little book “The Broad Mind” has been making around the world. The other day I received a note from Colleen Reichrath-Smith, a certified Global Career Development Facilitator who is working in the Netherlands. She...
by Michelle Tocher | Sep 19, 2020
I love creating things that can be shared with an audience, but I struggle with the notion of performance. It’s hard to go out there and put myself on the stage. I’m not a natural extrovert, and I know I’m not the only performer who feels reluctant to leave the wings....
by Michelle Tocher | Aug 24, 2020
No story has gripped me more than the real-life “sleeping beauty” story that Oliver Sacks tells in his magnificent book, Awakenings. For years I have been fascinated by the symmetry between his experience of patients with encephalitis lethargica and the...
