What's Your Story?

There is so much value to be gotten from hearing other people's stories. I suppose now that I am in a world where there is little time (no time) for telling stories, I miss that sort of connection that you get from knowing people by how they live their lives, not merely by the work they put in. I suppose I am guilty of confusing one for the other, withdrawing from living out my own story because I have been plagued with all these insecurities. What value do I have to give here? I have nothing more to prove. Right now, I am at a crossroads, in a way. I have decided to try to let go of things that are beyond my control. To admit my pace and work with it. To give myself the opportunity to be great at something that I love for a change.

Now that I have surreptitiously given myself the gift of more time, I have begun to read this book called Kitchen Table Wisdom, a book that I have tried to read a long time ago, but ended up shelving because I couldn't relate to it. After aging a few years, I find reading through it that I can finally delight in it and appreciate the wisdom that it contains. I'm sharing a few verses in the hope that they will inspire you to seek out wisdom, and not merely knowledge through other people's stories, again.

She said "Everybody is a story. When I was a child, people sat around kitchen tables and told their stories. We don't do that so much anymore. Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way the wisdom gets passed along. The stuff that helps us to live a life worth remembering. Despite the awesome powers of technology many of us still do not live very well. We may need to listen to each other's stories once again.

xxx

Real stories take time. We stopped telling stories when we started to lose that sort of time, pausing time, reflecting time, wondering time. Life rushes us along and few people are strong enough to stop on their own. Most often, something unforeseen stops us and it is only then we have the time to take a seat at life's kitchen table. To know our own story and tell it. To listen to other people's stories. To remember that the real world is made of just such stories.

xxx

Until we stop ourselves or, more often, have been stopped, we hope to put certain of life's events "behind us" and get on with our living. After we stop we see that certain of life's issues will be with us for as long as we live. We will pass through them again and again, each time with a new story, each time with a greater understanding, until they become indistinguishable from our blessings and our wisdom. It's the way life teaches us how to live.

xxx

All stories are full of bias and uniqueness; they mix fact with meaning. This is the root of their power. Stories allow us to see something unfamiliar through new eyes. We become in that moment a guest in someone else's life, and together with them sit at the feet of their teacher. The meaning we may draw from someone's story may be different from the meaning they themselves have drawn. No matter. Facts bring us to knowledge, but stories lead to wisdom."

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I just realized that I'm not sure I know my own story. But I intend to find out what it is, and maybe to learn through other people's stories as well.