Our Stories Matter
"Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses." Aleks Krotoski When I was teaching at the healing school, circa 1998-2012, we would frequently stop students from telling their stories. Why would we do that? At the time it was the best we knew to do. But there is a difference between telling our story and getting stuck and identified with our story, which is what we were trying to circumvent. Often I saw people shut down when they couldn't share what they had experienced. When we share with an openhearted, non-judgmental person, telling our story supports growth, recovery and healing. Our story elicits compassion, possible validation or new information. It also connects us to other human beings. I remember sharing that my family said I was such a bad baby my mother wanted to flush me down the toilet. In my family that story was told over and over to great peals of laughter. It became so much a part of who I was I never noticed how brutal an image it w