Christmas Reflection #9

Thus far, there have been eight important lessons for me during 2005:
1. Celebration of womanhood
2. Speaking one’s truth
3. Age is truly just a number and an opportunity to celebrate one’s uniqueness
4. Liberating Parenting
5. The strength of vulnerability
6. Moving on to be all that I can be
7. Friendship and family: the ties that bind
8. Taking a risk on life

These eight lessons points to the ninth – the healing in story-telling. In an article posted here at Comforting Words, I shared what I considered words of wisdom regarding this ancient and natural art of story-telling.

“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.”Isak Dinesen (1885 – 1962)

"If it had not been for storytelling, the black family would not have survived. It was the responsibility of the Uncle Remus types to transfer philosophies, attitudes, values, and advice, by way of storytelling using creatures in the woods as symbols."
(Jackie Torrence b. 1944)

I have borne my sorrows and have done more than survive this year – I have celebrated my life – through telling and sharing stories with readers of these pages.

Without the stories, if I had been silenced one more year I know for sure that a very different story would have been told about me.

As we close this chapter and look to open a new one in 2006, I invite you my dear readers and storytellers, shout out your own tales, let your voices be heard in which ever small corner you inhabit. Feel free to use Comforting Words in 2006 as one of venues for sharing your art – I will be here to hear you into your true selves.

Blessings,

Claudette