Stories

Stories are how we make sense of the world and share experiences with our family, friends and the world at large. Our brains are organized to follow the flow of stories, to seek a beginning, to follow a path of movement through life for a while, to wonder about and often fill in the gaps with our own experiences, then to seek some sort of an ending where we draw meaning from the story and reject or incorporate the story into our memories and lives. In some cases stories may help resolve the isolation and tension in our lives as we engage in an empathic response and resolve our distress through both laughter and tears. Other stories may help us to frame the important questions for our lives and serve as a new place from which to view our lives, and while this can be comforting or inspiring, it may also be troubling and challenging. However both types of stories and responses can promote understanding, empathy and growth in our lives. In this blog I hope to share many stories, including original short stories by myself or friends as guest writers. The stories I am drawn to most are of my family history, the lives of ancestors and stories of the land and natural world. However I also want to share stories of health and illness and how people are impacted and cope with distress and tragedy. Thus some stories may be based on my years of clinical and educational experiences, where the story is modified and as such represents a historical fiction, not a single real person, but representations of perceived truths and meanings. I hope you will visit my blog often and enjoy the stories.