The Magic of Storytelling

 I bet each of us has a favorite story, whether it was a fairy tale, or one that was told to us. We tell each other stories of our personal history, the moments we remember for certain reasons and want to pass on to others. 

Good storytelling makes us feel. We laugh, cry, sometimes even grieve through the stories we experience. The magic of storytelling helps us learn, grow, process life, and helps us see life through a different set of lenses than we usually do. 

There's nothing quite as cool as stories that help us see our surroundings in whole new ways. A flower isn't just a flower, it's a possible source of life for someone like Thumbelina. There could be giants living in the mountains, and a fallen-over hollow log could be a portal to another dimension for small things to scurry through. 

It's difficult to hold onto imagination as we grow older. The world grates it right off us, just scraping away the bits of childhood that got us where we are today. When we lose that, it's so much easier to get overwhelmed in the world we're in. It's hard to see the potential of others, to think with more compassion, to hope, and dream of a better world. 

Storytelling is humanity. It helps us hold onto that spirit of idealism, and reminds us that we are at the helm of a ship sailing through turbulent waters. We have the power to direct ourselves, though some decisions are incredibly difficult. We can forget that we have the power to effect change though, and we need to be reminded. 

We need to be reminded that while the world is full of pain, suffering, cruelty, disease, and many horrible things, that is also full of the promise of everything good. Each day the sun rises, or the clock turns over to a new day and we're there to witness it is another page of our stories. Another opportunity for us to learn and grow, and to create new memories that can be shared later. 

The magic of storytelling is so much, but more than anything else it reminds of what it means to be human, to be imperfect, but to keep striving and persevering until we achieve the goals we have. Storytelling reminds us that we can do more than we think we can, but also that sometimes we need to readjust our mental attitudes and take things a little slower. 

Stories revitalize us, give us renewed spirits and teach us to think like children again. We can look with a hint of wonder at those flowers that spawned Thumbelina. How many times have we seen those exact same flowers and ignored them, simply because they're always there? The magic of storytelling helps us learn to "see" again, to appreciate what's around us, and to double-check our priorities in life. 

There is magic in the world all around us. If you think about it, life in general is crazy cool. Cells are fascinating, DNA is like a scientific journal of our lives individually, but also of humanity collectively. Gravity holds us all together on this hunk of rock, and numerical patterns are found throughout nature as if a secret message or code is imbued into our very world.

There are sucky things in life, but stories help us remember our hope. They help us remember that there is a light in us, and that we can find our way through any of the darknesses to reach our destination. I'm just really grateful for stories and for the way they can reach through time, transcend barriers and speak directly to the heart of a person. We need stories, and we need the magic of storytelling to make this life as awesome as possible.