Sunday, February 9, 2014

Why Story Telling Is Important. Once Upon A Time I Ate Your Hamster This Morning...



I believe these two birds, in Nova Scotia, the Snowy Owl and Raven are telling their story to one another. All animals including ourselves have a story to tell, whether we know it or not. If we tell it, and there is someone to listen, we can hear, and hopefully understand it with our heart, if we listen, and we speak with our heart.

 This past Friday Night, I had  this wonderfully rewarding kind for experience, an evening of story telling with peers, old, and new found friends, and artists, at a venue called Baked Ham, in Sackville, New Brunswick; and no, no ham was baked or eaten.



I heard  fabulous stories about helium balloons following an invisible professor around her house, a beautiful cellist, and songstress who described herself as a Newf-Scotian, or was that a Scotian-Newf? I heard a heart warming story about how bags of stolen apples lead to a young man becoming an award winning, world famous, choir member. A story was told about an adventurous vacation that had us sitting on the edge of our seats, when the story relayed a unexpected situation that developed, taking a sudden twist that presented itself, as being a potentially, and possibly very dangerous scenario. involving a arms dealer, and men in black.
The story of WWF and a young man's experience with famous wrestlers and how this affected his life.
I told my story about a cross country trip by train, bus, and then crossing an ice bridge, on the last day before it closed, to Yellowknife NT in 1981.


" Stories set the inner life in motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged, or cornered. Story greases the hoists and pulleys, it causes adrenaline to surge, shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning, that lead us back to our own real lives as knowing wildish women." (p. 20)

                                                 -  Women Who Run With The Wolves - Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes


I believe humans inherently know that stories are vital to understanding what it means to be human, and have been since the beginning of time. If you have ever experienced  the art of story telling, you will know how transforming it can be, to both the teller, and the listener. We have made an deep connection to another, which is essential to life, culture and society. Stories are the emotional glue that connects us to each other.

Bianca Filoteo makes this list comprehensive reasons why story telling is so important that I like very much.

So we can help others understand — our pain, our joy, our beliefs, our purpose, our desires, ourselves.
So we can warn others of what’s to come.
So we can share with others what we have already done.
So we can tell others what to expect — a few steps ahead, or further into the future.
So we can give each other hope — for those times we’re challenged with personal obstacles, or when we need to defeat our own demons.
So we can guide those who are lost — and help them find their way.
So we can learn life’s lessons.
So we can discover what love really is.
So we can celebrate.
So we can enjoy life with laughter.
So we can feel more compassion and less judgement.
So we can inspire others into action.
So we can know that we’re never alone.

Stories act as guideposts, and when we hear a story or we tell our own, though the stories may not be the same, we can identify with the emotions, and perhaps the experience of our  own story can help another to find their way along life's path. We are all emotional human animals that need stories.

No comments: