Why this project?

Why not? We've all got a story to tell.

Every kid is born with some defining, innate ability that comes unconsciously. For some it’s a uniquely specific talent. For others, it’s less unique and more routine. Whatever it is, it can’t be outgrown, outrun, or outmaneuvered. It stays with us through adulthood. It’s powerful enough to propel us forward many times and take us to the brink of destruction other times.

These attributes reveal us over the course of our lives. This is a very powerful thing - to know that embedded in our DNA are blueprints that determine who we will become across the arc of a lifetime.

What’s my ‘thing’? Simply stated, I’m a storyteller. I’m a long list of other things - daughter, sister, friend, etc etc you get it. But my earliest memories have been telling myself stories that informed the next things that I experienced. My experiences in life, the good and the bad, become the baggage I carry filled with the stories I’ve believed. Anything I’ve achieved in life I’ve achieved because the stories I listened to willed me forward. I’ve been brought to my knees when I was numb, deaf, and blind to the stories unfolding in front of me.

Stories compel us to feel and to connect within us and around us. They become the compass that charts the map of our lives. When we tune out the stories, well, we lose ourselves or maybe we never find ourselves in the first place. As far as I am concerned, that’s as good as death.

|“Emotionally, spiritually, in this life nobody gets away unhurt. And we’re all just trying to find someone whose broken pieces fit with our broken pieces and something whole emerges. Then a certain kind of magic happens.” - Bruce Springsteen |

I’m telling my stories to build something over time - connection, compassion, love. This isn’t for followers or likes or comments. This is for practice. For connection. For re-building my capacity to shape a future based on grace and hope and love.

I’m an amateur storyteller at best, so I’ll turn to the greatest storyteller I know - a guy named Bruce Springsteen - to summarize my purpose here:

“The older you get, the heavier that baggage becomes that you haven’t sorted through. So you run. I’ve done a lot of that kind of running. I’ve spent 35 years trying to learn how to let go of the destructive parts of my character. And I still have days where I struggle with it. We all have our broken pieces. Emotionally, spiritually, in this life nobody gets away unhurt. And we’re all just trying to find someone whose broken pieces fit with our broken pieces and something whole emerges. Then a certain kind of magic happens. The music begins to take on a life of its own. Life’s mysteries remain and deepen. It’s answers unresolved. So you walk on, through the dark, because that’s where the next morning is.”

Thanks for reading. I'm excited to share these experiences and memories.