My 19 year-old son recently gave me this book, “Dad, I Want to Hear Your Story.” It’s a guided journal. With questions about memories. Family. Important events. Struggles.
I’ve enjoying responding to these questions. Remembering a few things. Realizing there is much that I don’t remember also. I notice I keep the book close — can do a few pages here and there.
I loved the way my son gave it to me, unsure that I was getting the point. “And then give it back to me.” I assured him I would. And told him how much I love the idea.
There’s a principle that I often use in my group facilitations — I learned it from Christina Baldwin. “The shortest distance between two people is a story.”
We humans, we are meant to both share and listen to stories. It’s how we learn. Prompts that point us to that — in groups and in families, among friends and even a few foe — yah, that can do such good things.