If Stories Come to You, ...

“If stories come to you, care for them and learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” Barry Lopez, in Crow and Weasel
Our stories are not supposed to be horded and kept in the recesses of our brains, but rather, they should be thrown to the four corners of the world. Just like love, we cannot worry ourselves with the constant concern that it is returned. We know that when we give we receive if not immediately, then ultimately.
Sharing our stories are gentle caresses to the listener’s ears. They are colorful masterpieces to the reader’s eyes. We may truly never fully, completely understand the impact that our experiences have on others. I will share this story, as that is what I do:
I had a student some years back. Q.O.D., is what I use every day to encourage my students to think, share, write, ponder. Most of my stories have some degree of moral, ethical lesson embedded within it. Daily I share my own experiences. Most of the time, I choose a quote that represents something that has happened to me over the 24 hours prior to my coming into class. You see, I never choose the quote until the beginning of my school day. It is in the spontaneity of the moment that guarantees the experience to be real, and “in the moment.” Typically, my students realize this within the first 2 weeks of teaching them.
One student in particular was a bit of an outcast. She gained from my sharing of personal experiences that she can be somebody. She shared in an essay that now she believes that she can go on to college, and she can achieve because if Ms. LaLuna can with all that has happened to her, than she can too.
I never would have imagined as I looked out over my class of students that 1) I was even being heard, and 2) that it would have been her to have “gotten it.”
So my dear friends, if you have taken the time to read this little Q.O.D, then I pray you will see the value in sharing your story. It is the one thing that you have that no one else has, and it is only when you decide to give it away can you give it, and keep it all at the same time. It is in giving away your story that it becomes real.