Listen to People's Stories

They are attentive...They look into your eyes...you are the only focus of their time....they wait patiently....no judging...no prejudices against you....just accepting and receptive to what you have to say!

People so need to tell the stories within them.   There is a fundamental need to feel like we are important enough for others to listen to us.  We have hopes and dreams, comedies and dramas and tragedies all inside that we need to share with others.  

Why do we share our stories?  What good does it do us?

Sharing our stories tells other people about where we came from and where we are going.

My grandfather used to spend hours talking about his life during The Depression.  He held so many jobs, including handy-man, roller-skate rink manager, coal miner, gold prospector, construction worker, brick-layer, that it is hard to recall all of them.

In the telling of these stories I learned about perseverance, and endurance.  I learned about the hope he had, the motivation to survive, to earn money, even during the worst of times.  From these stories, he showed me what kind of life he had and how he faced it.  I could see that he would face future challenges just like he had faced the ones in the past.


Sharing our stories tells ourselves who we are and who we may be in the future.

When I get to tell my stories to people, I listen back and find that I discover things about myself that I never knew before.  The stories of summer camp; being a camper, a staff and finally program director, are ones that revealed that when I focus on other people, that is when my gifts and talents, my patience and love are the strongest.  Looking at my future, I know that being of some service to others is where I will rediscover myself.

Sometimes our stories reveal to us areas where we need to grow.  We can share our stories of failure or tragedy and learn from them.  Then in the future, we can choose to do something else, to take another path.  Thus, we learn wisdom from our own stories.


Sharing our stories allows other people to feel comfortable sharing their stories with us.

It is a strange thing that what we put out we get back.  If we are open and honest with others; sharing with them our stories, then they are much more likely to be open and honest with us.   Not always, but often.  

There are times when I meet someone so very open that my only response to them is to be more open.   They are taking a risk in sharing who they are with me.  I begin to feel more comfortable sharing that with them.

Sharing our stories creates bonds.

There is an effort underway, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, to capture all the stories of the soldiers still alive from the World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.  Many of these people who have shared and helped to fill this audible archive, have left for contemporary soldiers, a reminder and a source of those that have gone before.  There are many stories of soldiers listening to these older stories, and finding solace in them.  What they have gone through or what they are going through, others have experienced similar lives. 

The whole point of the Oral Tradition for passing down cultural and historical information is that it creates a bond from the old to the young, from what was to what is; and keeps traditions, beliefs, and values alive.

Sharing our stories heals.

We are not passing down information only when we tell stories.   We are often caught back up in the emotion, the thinking, the spirit of the moment that story occurred.  Sometimes, we can get to a point of having a cathartic moment; a clearing of our emotional landscape.  Other times, our emotion sparks similar emotions in others. 

Stories of cancer survivors can inspire because they communicate one simple thing:  Hope.  

Stories of the underdogs, finally triumphing, can inspire others to persevere.  These stories share the power of redemption.  We can all identify with the underdog and be inspired that anything is possible.

Stories of love have inspired us to love even greater.  Whenever we hear of the power of love, the lengths to which people have gone to share it, the self-sacrifice, the glory, the chaos, everything, we see something for which to strive, to participate in, to show forth to others.

Take time to listen to people's stories.   Make it a priority!