“Story is the mother of us all. First we wrap our lives in language and then we act on who we say we are. We proceed from the word into the world and make a world based on our stories.” Christina Baldwin

I am knee deep in story talk. With our fall theme of “A Story to Stand On”, I am listening to and thinking about stories all the time. I am listening for words in conversations, words like ‘remember when’ or ‘ can you tell me’. These phrases often give the cue that a story is ahead. As humans we are made of stories, like the quote above notes. And as our language increases, our stories become richer and deeper. Stories get planted someplace just beneath our skin, someplace behind our heart and often near our tear ducts.

When we begin to ‘wrap our lives in language’ we begin to shape who we will become. It is always fun to look at people’s baby books to see what a child’s first word after the obligatory ‘ma-ma’ and ‘da-da’ were. What was yours? My mother tells me my first word was ‘listen’. This always makes me laugh but I am sure my family and friends see the early stages of a pattern.

There are times when we tell our stories more than others. Those holy moments often come at life’s transition points. The beginning of a new year. The start of a new relationship. At holiday times when we all gather, trying to piece together our far-flung lives into a unified whole once more, when we long to remember what we once were so we can know who we are becoming. At endings….of a year, of an event, of a life. All these times, and so many others, cause us to collect, tell and re-tell the stories that shape us, on whose tenets we stand.

What are the stories that shape you? What are the stories that bring meaning to your family, your neighborhood, your faith, your world? In these autumn days of transition from one season to another, it might be good to take the time to remember your stories, re-tell them around the dinner table, email one to a friend, write one down and tuck it away in a safe place for ‘just when you need it’.

And if you are interested in hearing a really interesting story, you can visit dig.hennepinchurch.org and click on How the Monkey Saved the Fish.