Why I Tell Stories

The stories I like to tell have a wide range of themes and can help meet number of needs.

Stories delight and entertain us.

Ever since I was a child, stories have delighted and entertained me. A well-told story helps me to momentarily escape the problems and pressures of everyday life and allows me to enter worlds where I embark on the hero’s journey, answer the call to adventure, face trials and tribulations, and return wiser.

Stories heal us.

I was introduced to the healing power of storytelling through a story told by Dr. Robert Béla Wilhelm on his tape called “Storytelling for Self-Discovery.” Ivar’s Story began the healing of a deep wound I’d been carrying inside me and started me on an adventure toward wholeness.

A story does not change a hurtful life experience—nothing can change that. But a story can change your relationship to what has happened so that instead of being defeated by the experience, you can grow from it.

Stories connect us to ourselves, to others and to God.

The stories I have heard and told over the years have enabled me to discover more about myself as I recognized and expressed the feelings those stories evoked in me. Stories have helped me to make meaning of my life.

Listening to and telling a story is a communal experience where listeners and teller share the adventure of the story and process it together.

Stories of faith have nurtured my soul since I was a child. Every major faith uses stories to teach about God. They teach us Truth that is eternal and unchanging.