When I listen to people's stories I am drawn in by their emotions as they tell it, the details of the story and what it discloses about them as people. Story telling is a way to share ourselves, to teach one another about different concepts and offers historical significance. I am tasked today to tell a story to a group of friends about a central figure of the Baha'i Faith. I have been thinking about how I may best engage my friends to share this little snippet of an extraordinary life of a person who impacts our lives so greatly. These stories help give us a window into the depths of a personality, those precious characteristics from which we are able to draw conclusions as to who this person was. These stories have even a greater significance because they demonstrate to me how to be with others, what to do in times of difficulty to maintain heart connections with everyone. It teaches me how to practice empathy and what it looks like when it is out there in this modern world. All of us experience suffering, none of us is exempt from it and it affects us in very different ways. Lately, I have been listening to many stories about how it is we navigate the world around issues of race. These are often painful and evoke very strong emotions that I often find difficult to hear. I know that we all carry wounds from history and that we all need to be heard and "story" each other about our thoughts and feelings.This is how we process hurt, grief and heal. This is how we learn about each other and forge deeper connections among us so that we do not continue to wound one another and see "other" in those who do not look like we do. I have also learned to tell my own story to penetrate those pockets of pain I closed off to the world and shielded, defensively. I needed to understand my own experience, cultivate a deeper presence of compassion for myself in order to be able to exude it to others and feel a connection with everyone. It is these feelings and emotions that I plan to access in my storytelling today to bring the story to life.
Sharing our pain by telling our stories is definitely good for healing. But we want the happy stories, too. They are just as much a part of who we are.