The Power of A Story.

As I begin to write this blog I am reminded of the song, This is My Story. This Is My Song.

 I remember when my brother passed on. My mum and sister sat down and drafted my late brother's eulogy. I mean we have all gone to funerals and heard people's eulogies being read. But that is simply not their full story. Its just a fraction of the person's life and it has been written by another person it simply not first hand narration. The eulogies only focus on the positive side of the person's life. They don't write about the struggles, challenges, the bad or the ugly. I remember one time during a seminar the facilitator gave us a task of writing our eulogies. Like what do we want people to hear on that day about us.

A story is a full account of someone's life. It captures the places they have been, the people they have met, what they have achieved, their high & low moments. Their experiences in the various seasons they went through in life. How they navigated the challenges or jumped through the hurdles of life. Its their story through the journey of life. Each one of us has a story to tell.

The story is best told by the person who has walked that journey. This is because they have first hand experience and they will tell it in  black and white as it is. No sugar coating. They would tell it through their own perspective. 

Recently I watched Martha Karua's  Interview on Clearing The Airwaves(CTA),by the way they have some amazing interviews and later she launched her book Against The Tides. The story can be told through interviews or even writing a book for people to read through. As I listened to Martha Karua's interview she narrated every step of her journey. She narrated the events of her life with so much passion as if they happened yesterday. She gave a detailed account because she is the one who lived through that story. She could clearly recount every moment of her journey. 

One of my mum's friends has a tradition of taking photos every year during her birthday. The pictures show her the growth that has taken place. Yes Pictures do tell a story. Look at a wedding the photographer always starts taking photos early in the morning till late in the evening because when the couple will later look at their photos they will be able to see their wedding story in pictures. 

When we tell the story or hear the story either in written or non written form. We encourage others, we give hope in hopeless cases & indeed things can change. We help others see that they can overcome. And that there is light at the end of tunnel. Our stories are surviving tools for others. Our Stories are testimonies of what the Lord can do.

A Story is also like a History class. Where people learn about what happened in the past. I always loved hearing my grandparents & Parents talk of about how life was in the past. Recently I asked my Dad and Aunt to narrate to me where to me where they were or what they were doing the morning of the 1982 coup. There Narration awakened my imagination. The stories make us to use our imagination as we listen to the story. 

Its Important for each one of us to tell our stories when we are alive and have the energy. And may your stories inspire others.

Will You Write or Say Your Story Today.