By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills
Tuesday, April 27 is National Tell a Story Day. Listeners, readers, and writers share a bond—we love a wonderful story. For centuries we’ve been thrilled with character and plot in a world that is often different from our own. Our imaginations explode when stories come to life.
Stories help us see a reflection of ourselves. Since the beginning of time, people have gathered to hear stories. They connected people to their roots and those around them. Those storytellers used their creativity to offer hope, educate, understand the world around them, and inspire listeners to achieve goals—just like the characters in their stories.
Look at the benefits of remembering, establishing, and maintaining stories.
- Beliefs
- Culture
- Humor
- Language
- Values
- Compassion
- Emotions
- Empathy
- History
- Traditions
- Feats of courage
- Motivation
We are all a part of our own story, and when we share what we’ve learned, we enrich other lives.
Most of us heard stories as children when someone read to us. With each word, we experienced an adventure and envisioned ourselves as a character. Pictures of the story players and their colorful world thrilled us. We requested our favorites to be read repeatedly.
We memorized our best-loved stories and told them to others.
As we grew older and learned to read, we remembered the joy of having a person read to us. We were thrilled to entertain others. Voice inflection and pacing impacted the listener with an exciting new world by challenging them to use their imagination.
Scientific research has proven the mind is wired for story. The power of generating information effectively through a non-threatening environment displays a willingness to communicate through common interests and goals.
How might you commemorate National Tell a Story Day?
Comments 5
My miracle story….born at 6 1/2 months in 1936; weight 2 lb. 7 oz. A med school student had made an incubator for a project and I got to use it. It had a light in it; drawer so they could take me out to feed me carnation milk with a medicine dropper and diaper me. Daily when my mother called, they would say “she is still living”. At 3 months, weighing 5 lbs, I went home from the hospital. They called me the miracle baby. Now I’m 85 and God isn’t finished with me yet. I may be “over the hill” but I’m too full of life yet to climb it.
Nancy, what a wonderful testimony! God bless you:))
Nancy, I love your story! You are a miracle. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Sherry, I’ve got to read that book!
I was a couple months shy of 10 years old when my sister was born. My reading to her soon became a favorite thing for both of us.
Her most beloved book was How the Rhinosarus Got His Skin by Rudyard Kipling. I read it over and over. The proverb “I could say it in my sleep” wasn’t a proverb – it was a fact. I read it until I hated it. Yet, every night, that’s what Jann wanted to hear.
In case you haven’t read it, it’s a great story…