Can I tell you a story?
Thirteen years ago, I left a job that shaped my 20s and gave me a deeper understanding of the human struggle. I left a group of multi-generational women who were more than co-workers. They were my sisters, my mothers, and my grandmothers.
When I finished my job as a legal advocate and resource specialist at a local domestic violence shelter, I was excited about what the future held but had no idea what the future looked like. I was 28 years old with eight and one-year-old daughters, a husband, a dog, and a cat, and I wanted to be a writer – someday – but didn’t have a clue how to get there. The women I worked with at the shelter listened to me spout off about my writing dreams and some were even my earliest readers. They were encouraging and always my cheerleaders urging me to reach higher and higher.
On my last day, they gave me this clay figurine, The Storyteller.
Each day she faces me while I pursue my storytelling dreams. She sits on a shelf across from my desk, reminding me that stories matter, people matter, and dreams matter. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the eight years I spent at the shelter working with those women – for other women and children – was an amazing gift that I carry with me through life. Each story I tell is a story that someone else couldn’t tell, wouldn’t tell, or didn’t know how to tell and for that, I am honored and humbled.
We are all storytellers in our own right. Maybe you’re not a novelist, a poet, or a songwriter. You don’t have to be any of those things to tell a story. My wish for you is that you always feel safe and always feel heard, and may you never feel scared to tell YOUR story!
