The Presence of Story

Every day, you will hear a tale.

It might be a casual discussion when work opens up. It could be a logo or banner, placed upon a car, or on a house. A holiday could be nearby. Perhaps you see some people in costume, or young men carrying flowers and roses for their mothers last Sunday.

Have you heard a mother chattering to the child she is pushing in a buggy? Sometimes, a discussion in the shop, or passing the street is something you are pulled into for a few moments. There are cries of joy in the street, someone giving a greeting along the path, couples and small groups engaged in discussion.

Does it come through your ears? Or perhaps, from your own mouth. The urge to say something, place events, strings of circumstance are their own little stories.

Is there a picture, a short video you have seen? Did a family member, a friend share a joke? What streams of stories are there from the ping of a phone, the roll of a thumb, or turn of a page. Perhaps your eyes, seeing a new place, picture, or painting. Seeing is experiencing, and both the subject and the place have many words, many thoughts and ideas bubbling inside your mind.

Each and every one of these things are a little string of coincidences, with the human mind searching for a point the same way bees scout for nectar.

Do you feel the urge to read a small scrawl of this writing? Is what you hear passed on, or is it something nourishing and a delicate layer of living the day?

Story is something we build, we engage with, and what we are. Always inside our own story, surrounded by other characters, never far from some side plot, or inciting incident, or a quest.

Today, consider the presence of this story of stories, and what kind of tales you find and make.