StoryGlass: Personal Storytelling Course — Photos Hold Forgotten Stories

What we've lost

We live in a time when families are held together by screens. Yet we're more emotionally disconnected than ever.

Adults becoming elders are going quiet to keep an uneasy peace. The wisdom from our lived experience is getting swallowed by noise. Friendships are fraying. Families, too.

You're not imagining it. Something real has been lost — and you feel it most in the quiet moments when you wonder whether the people you love will ever really know who you are.

Not the role you played. Not the caretaker, the provider, the problem-solver. You. What you went through. What you learned. What you'd do differently. What you'd do exactly the same.

"I watch my grandchildren on their phones at dinner and think — they will never really know me. And I don't know how to reach them."

"There are things I've lived through, things I learned the hard way, that would matter to my kids. But every time I try to share it, I feel like I'm interrupting something."

"I keep waiting for the right moment to tell my stories. And I'm starting to realize — if I keep waiting, that moment is never going to come on its own."

Meri Aaron Walker

Old Lady Storyteller
& Maker of Good Trouble

Journalist, visual artist & storytelling educator for over 50 years
Creator of the StoryGlass Method
Founder of The StoryGlass Studio with AI-assisted digital tools so simple a child could use them

How The StoryGlass came to be

Hi. I'm Meri. And I know just what you're sitting with.

At 70, a wildfire took my house, my possessions, and a lifetime of photographs — my family's and my own. Nothing left but what was in the iPhone I threw in a paper bag as I ran out the door. When those things were gone, I realized I didn't just lose my home and all my stuff.

Until you lose everything, you don't realize how much the things you live with tell you who you are. Your grandmother's china. The photos on the wall. The books. The letters. Your kids' baby pictures and report cards. When they're gone, your memory becomes a mess. Like the most snarled wad of fishing line you ever saw.

I spent 18 months running from that fact — driving an RV around the country, visiting people I'd known and places I'd lived, hoping something out there could help me recover myself. Nothing could. Because here's what I finally had to face: my identity had been shattered. I had nowhere to live. I was running out of money. And all I had were the few photographs still on my iPhone.

Eventually I ended up in this tiny apartment where I live now, sitting with that truth. One day I picked up an old iPad and started digitally painting over images I'd made in the ashes of my house.

As I did that, something shifted. My memory started activating again. Not the sentimental kind — the useful kind.

I started interviewing the photographs while I was painting them — in the same way I had interviewed people when I was a journalist. Asking them to help me understand what happened helped me recall detail I thought was gone. And slowly, story by personal story, I started seeing myself again. Not who I used to be — who I am now, having learned from everything those photographs held.

That's what I want for you. Not a memoir project. Not a scrapbook. A way of sitting with your photographs — really sitting with them — until the story they've been holding for you finally comes out.

Your memory isn't just a record of the past. It's the thread that holds your identity together.

And when you shape that memory into a personal story and share it with someone you love, you don't just pass something on — although that's a big thing you do.

We remember what it was to grow up with stories that shaped us. Meaning is carried on breath — in bodies using human voices, willing to pass wisdom gleaned from a life actually lived.

We remember what it felt like to listen until something ancient stirred in us.

Every time you tell a personal story, you reclaim who you are. And you give your people something they'll carry for the rest of their lives.

That discovery became The StoryGlass.

This is not nostalgia. This is resistance. We are transmitting live values — while we still can.

What I've discovered and now started teaching others is the most powerful work I have ever done.

The Method

A simple, step-by-step process that anyone can follow

No blank page. No writing class. No memoir project that takes three years and never gets finished. Just one photograph, a guided process, and a personal story only you can tell.

Step 1

Choose One Experience

One that taught you something important. One photograph from that time that makes something tighten in your chest when you look at it.

Step 2

Interview the Photo

Use the Tiny Truths interview to unlock the senses, the stakes, and the moment when something changed you.

Step 3

Shape It with AI

An AI story coach helps you turn your raw notes and memories into a short, structured personal story — in your voice, not a robot's.

Step 4

Build Your eBook

Combine your words and photographs and maybe your voice in BookCreator. Simple, free, step by step. Even if you think you hate tech.

Step 5

Share & Connect

Start by sharing privately with one person. Then sit down together — and watch the conversation open in ways you didn't expect.

The Free 10-Day Course

Learn the full StoryGlass method — at your own pace

Each day for 10 days, one short lesson lands in your inbox — walking you through every step of the method from choosing your photograph to understanding just how to build and share your story. By day 10, you'll know how this works. You'll be ready to begin.

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The Tiny Truths photo-interviewFor unlocking rich details from your memory — no staring at a blank page

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The AI-assisted storycoachWho will help you shape your personal story in your own voice

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BookCreator toolsTo lay out your text, photos and maybe some voice clips — easy even for committed technophobes

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Private sharing & connectionHow to publish privately and open a reflective conversation to bring your loved ones closer

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Bonus podcastExclusive access to a 13.5-minute podcast discussing The StoryGlass Method in action

Free Always. No catch.

No writing experience needed. No tech overwhelm. Just you, your photographs, and a story only you can tell.

Yes — Send Me the Free Course →

No spam. No chain letters. No antiaging cream offers.
Short, occasional emails, always written with care.

From StoryGlass Students

They didn't think they had stories worth telling.

Until they told them.

Grandfather and grandchild sharing a story together on a tablet

"Meri is a catalyst. Her method helps you gather scattered fragments, breathe them into a story, and spark conversations that bind generations together. She's created a bridge where memory can cross into meaning."

Erasmus L.

Philosopher Storyteller

"What surprised and quickly hooked me on The StoryGlass Method was the way I felt listened to, understood, and even celebrated taking the storytelling interviews."

Stacy K.

World Traveller

"Working with Meri helped me tell a story I didn't know I needed to tell. She's changed the way I think about myself as a storyteller."

Michelle S.

The Quiet One in the Back

"I didn't know if I had a story to tell. I wasn't sure I could navigate the tech. Using Meri's step-by-step heartfelt approach… I DID IT!"

Lan R.

Former Technophobe

"Less is more. I learned to delete and delete until what I had left was a strong skeleton for a good story. Challenging, fun, and effective!"

Ruth L.

Retired Teacher and Artist Auntie

"Learning with Meri is about so much more than technology. I got to see and understand that I have stories to tell — and her dedication to helping people find their voices is profound."

Lauren C.

Lover of Whales and All Things Natural

Your photographs hold the stories you forgot you knew.