Story proves to us that we are beautiful and that we matter. Even in the most dim and dreadful fairy tale, we find a spark of light and hope lit within our hearts that wishes the characters to wellness and in doing so, brings us along with them. Story balms our wounds and nourishes our soul.
Story is the healing intelligence that speaks to us, offering guideposts, instruction and wonder that inspire and invite inward exploration and soul knowing. Composed of dream language and mythic symbols, stories are living creations that mirror the individual and collective psyches where vital characters and circumstances exist for personal awakening and maturation.
Story provides footsteps to walk within, leading us safely and securely toward our purpose. Heard through the heart, the meanings and messages of stories resonate and crystallize depending upon our needs. As we grow, stories grow with us, endlessly, tirelessly giving what, when and where they are required most. Stories revitalize the Self by honoring the best in each of us.
Sharing stories enables simple, gentle moments of tenderness with our children and families. As we experience the tales together, we are giving our children a vulnerable, intimate part of ourselves while helping them express and discuss their most important feelings and reactions with the listener whom they trust most. The time spent telling, reading and hearing stories creates lovely memories of home and a lasting love of literature while reconnecting us with an ancestral pastime that engenders bliss and community.
Story paves the golden path toward the door to mystery, that invisible, yet tangible threshold bridging the secular to the sacred. Sharing a vast and magical universe that continually offers gifts and blessings, ecstatic and sublime, story soothes, salves and inspires - it is the root of who we are.
Vassilisa the Beautiful
by Ivan Bilibin
