This post is in response to Chris Brogan’s post and challenge about the importance of story in our lives.
A few month’s ago when I was at a crossroads in my life I watched a video that posed several questions. To me the questions were so profound that I wrote them down and have pondered them many times since. The question are: What is my calling?; What if my calling is my story?; and What if my story is where I am right now?
When I first had these questions posed to me through the video I had 2 reactions. First, “cheezy” and second, after they lingered a while, was “wow”! The second question was a bomb shell for me. What IF my calling WAS my story? You’d think at 43, that I would have all of life’s big questions answered, but what I find is that the farther I go down the trail of life the more questions I actually have.
What if my calling was my story? What if I was not only the narrator, but a character in my own story. What if I was also a co-author, not just in my story, but in the stories of others and vice versa? These were all questions that came to mind as I pondered the my own emotional and intellectual response to the initial questions.
So why would your story be important to me?
First, it is in hearing other’s story that I realize that I’m not that unique and yet still uniquely me. We are all travelers in this life, sharing similar experiences and yet we have very different responses and outcomes.
Second, by the mere fact that you are reading this, our stories are now intertwined. Maybe not like a best friend, husband, wife, son, daughter or someone very close to us, but we still are connected. I have come to realize that MY story is not just my story, but the coalescing of my story with those around me as well.
Third and by all means not last, your story and you are important to me. Every person is truly valuable and when one single story is not heard we all suffer loss.
I hope that this post along with Chris’ in some way inspire you to realize that you have a story, it’s important and you get to co-author it.
Have a great day and make your story great.