Stories

A lazy Sunday in July, and I am travelling down memory lane, looking at my graduation yearbook and reading the bios of my classmates. We have changed in appearance but perhaps not in our visions and ideals.  All of the people who responded to the request for Bio's that came with our invite to the 50th reunion, seemed to have had good lives. Everyone had a story that was short and capsulized their lives into the allotted number of words. 

Everyone wants to have their story told, to be remembered by their family and friends, and to have whatever legacy carried forward, Stories are written to be shared, and it is our responsibility to retell those that we witness, not only for our own sake, but for the benefit of others. Stories change people. They shape entire cultures. Stories also plant ideas, create emotions, stimulate thoughts, and teach lessons because they are the connection between how we think and process the world. 

Humans tend to think in narratives regardless of what we’re doing. Personal stories and gossip make up the majority of your conversations. 

So why are stories important to the fabric of our lives? I think it is because they bring us together in ways that share our common experience.  That is why I enjoyed reading the stories from my fellow high school grads. We were the first wave of Boomers, we had a unique place in history and so it is fun to read about their stories and to see what shaped our common experiences.

However, sometimes stories just there to entertain us and then are gone while other stories persuade, inform, or inspire us to take action or to change. 

When we tell a bedtime story to our children, we are also enriching them with our own experiences and securing the power of words in their imagination. And we often replay important parts of our lives that we perhaps overlooked or forgot. What have you done to make sure your story is told?