Your Stories Matter

Having a beautiful moment I felt needed to be shared.

Today is the deadline for the first round of of edits for the authors of our current anthology. The details of this journey will be shared another day, but needless to say, like every beautiful journey, many obstacles have been thrown into everyone’s path. Having the honor to walk these amazing women through it all has been something I’ve dreamt about since I was a child. The written word that comes from people’s hearts and minds is in my opinion, one of the most powerful things that exists in our world.

At the same time, I’m finishing up article #3 of a 4 part series I was invited to share for m3digitalmag.com. Each time I write, it is an experience of tapping into my inner most vulnerable parts of myself. I had no idea just how convicted I was about sharing with others the truth and importance of telling their stories, whether for personal or professional use, sometimes both.

As a child I wrote about everything. I wouldn’t call it a diary or journal, but rather it was like sharing with my best friend about my life. I later realized it was a way to connect with myself as I often times disassociated from what my reality was, to survive. But then a pivotal moment happened, all of my journals were used as evidence for an abuse case. Looking back, I am glad I had them, but in the moment, and for many years, I allowed that trauma to silence me, I stopped writing, it wasn’t safe anymore.

Of course that was a lie, but lasted 20+ years.

This is a common thing. Perhaps you got a bad grade in something you wrote. Someone told you that your writing wasn’t good enough. Maybe you told a story that resulted in a negative reaction. There are so many things that can happen in the development of someone using their voice through written words or even verbally.

I am here to tell you, your voice matters. Your stories matter, because you matter.

Our stories are meant to be shared not only to support and inspire others, but to release and oftentimes heal parts ourselves that only storytelling can do.

Storytelling is in our DNA, and each time we intentionally answer the call to step into it, we are honoring all of our ancestors and their stories too. A legacy that will forever live on.

“Embrace the untamed spirit within, live wildly free.”