Stories To Help Us On Our Way

 

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash
Libraries, book stores, and shelves full of books can be a little bit of heaven for me!

When I was young my Mom used to read to us.  She read us bedtime stories, sometimes getting so tired of them that they would go "missing" for a while.  How many times can you read The Pokey Little Puppy before it goes missing at your house? My Mom read us fairy tales, scripture stories, and books too. She read at dinner, at home and in the car.  She read Where The Red Fern Grows (cue lots of crying), and The Unwilling Pirate.  (I found that one at a used book sale and read it to some of my children and discovered that it is really, really hard to speak pirate!)

We had stories we could listen to on records and tapes.  My cousins had dramatized scripture stories and the summer we stayed at Uncle H.D.'s house I think I listened to the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt several times.  It was my favorite.  My cousin David and my now brother-in-law Chris could be begged into reading my cousin Julie and I stories some Sunday afternoons, and my Uncle H.D. liked to tell stories that were of the "tall tale" variety and were lots of fun.  Stories are awesome!

In listening to and reading stories I have traveled to places I may never get to go, "lived" in times both past and future, and met both villains and heroes along the way.  I've learned history from the eyes of people who lived during those times, and in some small way I have lived their stories along with them.  I have met people I want to be like, and people I absolutely despise.  I have experienced people being treated in awful ways, and others being treated with a rather amazing grace.  

If you can't tell by now, I am a big fan of stories.  I actually started out with the idea of writing about the heroes I have found in stories, but it turns out that today I have spent more time talking about the heroes like my Mom who have helped me to hear and love stories, and as I have heard, read, and seen stories told, they have helped me on my way.