What's in a story?

There’s something about stories.

Something more than words.

There is something in a story that nudges us, stirs us, that sometimes whispers and sometimes roars. Something that makes us smile with joy, sigh with relief, cry in sympathy, laugh in understanding.

Stories have the power to change us. They have the power to move us to action.

Each one of us has a story: a unique, compelling, rollercoaster of a story. Yet, though each has come through different times, from different places, landing in different spots, there is something about our stories that brings us together, puts us on the same level.

For much of my life, as I was struggling with who I thought I should be, how I thought I should feel and what I thought I should say, I thought I was the only one. I thought that no one could possibly understand because no one knew what I felt. And surely if I shared it, in return I would get mocking and judgement. That kept my story firmly shut inside. Slowly, carefully, I started to let parts of it out, I started to tell my story. As I did, all around, I heard whispers of “me too”. All around me were people who had struggled with the same problems, buried deep the same issues, put on the same masks, built the same walls.

As we started to tell our stories, the walls started to come down. The walls we placed around our fears came down as we saw that others were scared too. The walls around our insecurities were broken down by mutual imperfections. The walls around our hurts gave way to healing as the words of those with the same hurts breathed life around them. We realised that, for too long, we’d been reinforcing those walls, thinking that it would protect us, when actually, what we needed was to expose our struggles with grief, doubt, frustration, disappointment, apathy, loneliness, jealousy, depression, failure.

Stories, telling them and hearing them, have changed my life. Changed the way I see the world, see others and see myself. One of my greatest desires is to give people a space to experience that too. Watch this space…

#story