31. Going Forward With Storytelling
“If you don’t recount your family history it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are” Madeleine L’Engle
This quote by Madeleine L’Engle really speaks to me. It reinforces messages my children have been giving me over the last few years. I am a storyteller. I share family stories with my children and grandchildren. Some of them I have written down, but many are still unrecorded. They remind me to write them down while I am able to remember, to check with others who are still living and not to lose them. Even what might seem insignificant to me, because it simply was the way we lived, is new and interesting to others in the family.
I believe it is important to share these stories and lessons learned from them. What has happened to the generations before us helped shape them into the adults they became and in turn shaped me into who I am today. I am part of a larger picture and yet I am still a unique individual who must choose my attitude towards the circumstances in my life.
Things happen in my life and my family’s lives over which I have no control. I can only choose what my actions and reactions are during those events. Some are exciting, others are mundane, ordinary life happenings and then there are those tough times in life. I have used some of the stories of my life as illustations, in speeches, messages at camp or ladies events and in writing.
What am I planning to do as I move forward after 31 blog posts on the topic of storytelling? What challenges will I take on? I do plan to continue being a storyteller, accepting challenges to move out of my comfort zone of oral storytelling and try more writing the stories including fiction. I hope to have more opportunities to tell stories as part of presentations and encourage others on the importance of storytelling to impact audiences no matter what type of presentation you are doing. I would love to teach workshops on how to tell a story well, what type of story to include in various types of presentations. I will continue to add to this blog which I began for this challenge. It might include more stories or other random posts from my storytelling, speaking and writing. Above all I will try and preserve family stories including my own.
What storytelling challenge are you willing to take on? How will you preserve your own family story? I hope you have gleaned a few things from these 31 days of storytelling blog posts and will go and have fun implementing the art of storytelling in your life.
“No one can tell your story, so tell it yourself. No one can write your story, so write it yourself.” Unknown
Posted: October 31st, 2016 under Storytelling.