My wonderful first grandchild sharing a moment together at her wedding........I am sure if you would ask her what we were enjoying it would not be the same thing I was enjoying.....because two people never see the same thing going on around them. Our stories are the glue of what we are, they stitch together what we become. Our ability to tell them is fundamental to how we celebrate and examine our lives.
After we have satisfied the need for water, food and a roof ....companionship, storytelling is where we turn for encouragement in how to live. Sharing your story helps remind us what we believe in, and helps us make sense of our fickle world.....No two stories are ever the same, they are our fingerprints. Whether grand or trivial, stories and the ways we tell them shape us and the world. (My friend Jane told us of taking her two boys ......alone.......when they were little on a trip.......only she could tell it from her eyes!!!!) The brain turns into a carnival when we tell our stories.....lights switch on in our heads, neurons fire more rapidly.....whether the story is happy or sad. I remember growing up and sitting around our kitchen table listening to wonderful stories my father would tell of all the things he did growing up......we loved them. Through listening we can have as many lives as we want......we become the child riding her first bicycle, the miner trapped down the shaft, the woman who survives cancer.
When all is said and done. when the last sound goes off in the darkness, everything can be taken from us.......our homes, our identities, our health , our loved ones.....but our stories remain......through our stories we survive! This has been proven by many tribes of people all over the world......who did not read or write......but their stories kept their tribes going for centuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment