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| Rainbows over the Highlands. |
It’s been several
years since I told stories professionally.
Now I tell stories through my blog, through social gatherings, quietly
in my head, on pieces of paper that I eventually lose, and sometimes for
organizations who want a 30-60 minute speaker.
I like it best when there is an audience; where eyes and hearts will
interact with the stories I share, but I beam with joy when someone replies to
a blog posting that reached out to them.
Like storytellers for eons of time, I
believe that life’s sorrows, worries, triumphs, and joys can be endured when
told in a story. “Stories have to be told
or they die, and when they die, we can’t
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| Book Dog |
remember who we are or why we’re
here.” (Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life
of Bees.) Sometimes stories lie way down in my belly and
other times they drift through my head like spinning spirally clouds. It’s when they are not surrounding me that I
feel most alone. That’s when I reflect
and turn to a place or time for inspiration.
I needed to refresh
my brain with stories and memories, so I went to my book cup board to
search. Books have always taken me
vicariously through life, often giving me new roads to explore. When the cupboard
opened there sat my puppet, Book Dog, cramped in a corner but happy to see
me. I laughed because I was confident that I had not left him there.
What mystery of life had taken a puppet out of bag and set him in front of
a door for me to see at this moment?
Ah!, yes, a house full of children one weekend played with the puppets
and helped me rearrange the shelves. The
laughter of seeing the puppet, the memories of children’s voices asking for
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| Jefferson puppeteers |
Book Dog, and the stories themselves began to flow easily through my mind’s eye.
I
took a notebook filled with my favorite stories, and headed to the patio to sit
in the sun and read. Inspiration with
each story took me back to a time when stories came to life in the eyes of the
children surrounding me. A tear trickled
down my face and I smiled. The children
who inspired me to share stories
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| Prairie Hills Middle School Storytellers |
of laughter, of sadness, of courage, and to take
those unexpected journeys in life are now grown. To all of you I say, “Thank you for sharing your
enthusiasm of life, your imaginative thoughts, your real life adventures, and for opening your hearts to a
well told story.”
A
story A story, Let it Come, Let it Go.
P.S. After posting this story only 24 hours ago I have been in touch with two of my former students, who were storytellers. We can't imagine how much difference we make in each others lives by simply sharing a story from the heart.
*Thank you Cindy Dale for this beautiful photo of the double rainbow over the Highlands.
*students from PHMS: April Whittington, Becky Walenz, Ben Rawlins, Lindsey Snyder, Omid Heidari.
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