Storytelling Expand the World of Possibilities

Daily writing prompt

What job would you do for free?

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When I finish my second Master’s degree in May, I plan to spend more time in an activity that I would do for free. I want to return to being a storyteller. I love stories, for they allow us to make the lessons we are trying to give more real and applicable to people’s lives. I think the books of the Bible that are most accessible to learning of the goodness of the Lord are the stories of ordinary people like Ruth and Naomi, Esther and Malachi, Job and his three friends, and the wondrous love found in the Song of Solomon.

As a sociology professor, the lessons that students remembered were ones where I told a story from my life or one I had read. Stories remind us that there are answers to the problems in our lives, and because others have succeeded in overcoming the trials of this life, so can we. I shared my stories because I wanted students to understand that learning isn’t just in books, but true learning occurs in the real world of messy relationships, jobs that don’t satisfy our souls, and in the ways we treat others and are treated by others.

So, I want to be able to blog more and tell stories that encourage, inspire, and give hope to people in the same situations I describe in the tales I share. Stories make the world real, not hypothetical, because every story derives from someone trying to make sense of the world. It’s why books are so great. It saddens me to learn that children are not reading as much today and that libraries are struggling to remain open. Children need stories read to them, and parents should share their most ridiculous events with their children in stories that allow the children to realize that victory is possible and that life’s challenges can be overcome.

I look forward to being a storyteller again, possibly at a library near me. I want to read stories to children in ways that make their eyes open in wonder and their little mouths gape open like an “O” in awe of the world of possibilities around them.