It’s all so overwhelming and it seems everyone is tired, discouraged, maybe angry or cynical or depressed, maybe confused or disheartened…just weary.
Each day during this April A-Z Blogging Challenge I’ll offer a short musing on an aspect or two of the many ways the ancient-yet-very-contemporary experience of storytelling – both listening and telling – is an enjoyable, fortifying and heart-lifting practice, for anyone!
D – Storytelling Brings DELIGHT!
Relatively early on in this damnpenic, one of the online courses I offered was “Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered in Zoom” (aimed at clergy and other faith community leaders).
One of the first things I had participants do was to choose and learn a short folktale for telling to the group. When the time came for everyone to share their stories, we spent a bit over an hour “just telling stories” to each other in the Zoom room – for some it was the first time they’d done something quite like this.
When everyone had told and I invited comments/reactions, one of the participants literally burst out –
“I forgot how FUN stories are!!!”
– and we all laughed with pure DELIGHT!
I thought: “My work here is done…” 😉
Because everyone had experienced – experienced! – the DELIGHT found in the simple, yet often deep in many ways, act of storytelling.
The DELIGHT of listening to stories, and the unexpected-by-many DELIGHT of telling a story to others, was refreshing and nourishing.
So in these disheartening times, I find I’m on this mission to encourage people to consider the real, accessible, and beneficial heartening qualities and results of storytelling…and start looking for ways to engage in it!
Want something to DELIGHT in? Try storytelling!
Thanks for reading – Pam
Top photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash. Storytelling photo by Mark Hillis.
[P.S. If you’d ever want to develop your own storytelling skills, I do individual coaching and group workshops. Any questions, or to just be in touch, check out my website and sign up for my newsletter there!]
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