Narrative - Authority - Voice - Ease

Four elements that shape everything you do.

Webster Groves, MO, April 23, 2026— Barred Owl at dusk across from Walters and Margo’s house. Photo: James Navé

Greetings,

What’s the news from your part of the world?

All my drives are narratives. Last Thursday, as I drove from Black Mountain, NC to St. Louis to visit with my friends Walter and Margo Parks, I thought about how we build our lives around countless narratives, large, medium, and small.

A small narrative is making a morning coffee and sitting easy for fifteen minutes.

A medium narrative is downsizing to a small Pleasure Way RV and hitting the road for three years with confidence and authority.

A large narrative would be setting your warehouse on fire for the insurance money and hoping you get away with it. Yikes! Not all narratives are positive; some are downright boneheaded, like torching a warehouse, no ease in that nasty narrative.

All narratives produce consequences. The trick is to avoid the negative ones and seek out as many good vibe narratives as you can; after that, you can expect a bit of ease.

While I was at Walter’s, I sat on his sun porch recording my weekly radio show for WPVMFM-Asheville and KCEIFM-Taos, unpacking my thoughts on narrative, authority, voice, and ease.

Over the past ten years, I’ve aired over 400 shows, many with guests and a few solo shows, like the one I recorded on Walt’s porch in St. Louis. I never write my shows; instead, I talk them like a conversation with a friend over coffee.

In this solo show (featured below) I explore the framework of narrative, authority, voice, and ease—not as abstract ideas, but as practical forces shaping how we move through the world.

From my two-day drive out of Asheville to a quiet morning on a sun porch in Saint Louis, I track how small strategic choices create either stress or ease in real time.

Along the way, I reflect on storytelling as a lived experience, not just something performed on stage, and the reality of building creative work without chasing scale or spectacle.

This episode moves through travel, intuition, community radio, and the deeper question: why do we tell stories at all?

At its core, this is about learning to trust your own narrative, stand in your authority, recognize your voice, and allow ease to emerge—even in uncertain conditions.

Feel free to click in and listen to a sample. If you have time, I hope you can hear it all.

Thanks for being out there. Lean in, enjoy what you can, and post your news in the chat below. Local is global.

Warm wishes,

Navé

Narrative • Authority • Voice • Ease

Four elements that shape everything you do.

If you enjoy writing, join me on any Saturday, 12-1 pm ET for The Imaginative Storm Writing Salon on Zoom; it’s always free. Invite a friend.

Imaginative Storm Weekend Writing Transformation, La Veta, CO
In person- June 25-28, 2026
Learn more →

Arroyo Seco, NM— April 27, 2026: Allegra Huston’s Kitchen Table
Photograph: Tripod shot with remote clicker by James Navé