Telling Stories: Of Cookies, Hope, Birthdays and a Christmas Miracle
It's Day 14 of the #Write31Days blog marathon and I decided to feature a few blogging friends who are sharing their life stories on the internet. Blogging is not for everyone, but it is a powerful means for telling stories to a wide audience. Often, words I've read on blogs I follow have been just what I needed to hear (or read) on that...
Guest Post: Telling Stories Opens Them To Something Greater Than Ourselves
When a memoir has the power to transport the reader to a different time and place, that's a gift. And when the author's words evoke the emotions she experienced during a profound period in her life, you've unearthed a treasure. My friend Jill Kandel's beautiful book So Many Africas: Six Years in a Zambian Village did all that for me, and more....
Follow the Pattern of Sound Words: Truth in Storytelling
Fair warning here: This post will be a bit random because sometimes that's just the way my brain works. (I apologize in advance for the number of words I'm piling on you today.) In the previous post on "story" I mentioned this fact -- telling our stories may change us as much or more than those who hear them. We considered WHEN and WHERE to...
When We Are Changed by Telling Our Stories
Life stories sometimes need to "ferment" awhile before they're ready to be shared. You may have an experience or event, or perhaps a personal encounter, that you've been mulling over, wondering if others might benefit from the telling of that story. How will you know when you're ready to share it? Knowing when our stories are needed can be as...
Tell Your Stories, That the Next Generation Might Know Them
Last week, at the Breathe Christian Writers Conference in Grand Rapids, I shared a story about my friend, Kathy. I called her a reluctant modern-day prophet, a “creator” who did not believe she could create with words, who came to a time in her life when she could not speak, but who used words to deliver God’s message. My friend Kathy’s...
The World Needs Your Stories
I ended yesterday's blog post with these words: "Tell your story. The book of this world is not finished without it." Author and speaker Leslie Leyland Fields was addressing writers at a conference, but I believe she was also speaking to each of us -- each of YOU -- with stories to share. Whether your life story is needed for family legacy, as...
Break the Resistance That’s Keeping You From Taking Action
I spent the last couple of days at the Breathe Christian Writers Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While I joined discussions about writing, heard talks about writing and even read about writing, I did very little writing. Hence, the blank spot in day #7 in my quest to #Write31Days. Now, I could have posted on the blog on day #7, and in...
Guest Post: You Can Go Home Again
I spent a good part of my young adult life "homesick", not knowing where I belonged yet filled with a yearning to belong somewhere. Author Christie Purifoy shares a piece of her search for home in a guest post today. Christie's book, Roots & Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons, is a beautiful recollection of the year her family settled...
Sharing Hope: Putting Flesh on Your Testimony
I recently shared my personal testimony -- I called it my "come to Jesus moment" -- as a post here on the blog. I've done this face-to-face a few times, but never in print (or digitally). It was kind of scary. I realize that I've opened a door I can't close. I must walk through it. Sharing with others how God wooed and won me is something I'll...
You Are Your Stories, and They Are Priceless
"You are your stories. You are the product of all the stories you have heard and live -- and of many that you have never heard. They have shaped how you see yourself, the world, and your place in it." Daniel Taylor Daniel Taylor's inspiring book "Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories" gave me permission to share stories --...