Is your life a story worth telling?

I recently ran across a quote that resonates with me:

Make your life a story to tell. Accumulate memories, not just possessions.

 

The quote reminds me of the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. After writing a successful memoir, Miller crawled into bed, avoided all responsibility, and found himself questioning the meaning of life. 

That’s when an unusual opportunity knocked on his door. Which motivated him to get out of bed and write meaning and risk and love into his narrative. Miller shares his experience in Million Miles, encouraging readers to live a story that’s worth telling.

Did you know there are benefits of telling our stories?

According to a Harvard Men’s Health Watch piece, “The Health Benefits of Writing your Life Story” and a Psychology Today article, “Resilience and 4 Benefits to Sharing Your Story”:

1. Telling your story can be therapeutic and build resilience as you explore troubling issues that happened in your past.

2. If you write your narrative in cursive, it can activate parts of the brain responsible for short- and long-term memory.

3. Telling your story can inspire hope in other people.

This thought from Iyanla Vanzant, speaker, author, and life coach:

Your story will heal you, and your story will heal somebody else. When you tell your story, you free yourself and give other people permission to acknowledge their own story.

Dan and I were on the Oregon coast this past week with son Jeremy and DIL Denise. Daughter Summer and SIL Josh and the grands joined us for a day.

Meals were enjoyed outdoors. Tiny crabs were caught and let go. Tide pools were explored (did you know if you gently touch a sea anemone, they close up? My grandsons from Uganda had never experienced such a thing in their young lives).

 

The fam
Tiny crabs were caught and let go
No crabs were harmed in the production of this blog
Sea anemones
Do you see what I see?

A hike took us past a lighthouse, up over a hill, and through mossy woods and flowering beauty to the next beach.

 

Heceta Head Lighthouse
Brazilian rain forest, right here in Oregon
Lushness
Flowering beauty

And Dan and I had more fun than two old people ought to be allowed as we accumulated more memories for a fuller, richer story. 

I’ve told this little story before, but it’s worth repeating. Ann Voskamp once sat next to an Orthodox Hassidic rabbi on a long flight. In the middle of their conversation, the rabbi turned to Ann:

Every morning that the sun rises and you get to rise? That’s God saying He believes in you, that He believes in the story He’s writing through you. He believes in you as a gift the world needs.

This notion is mind-bending to me.

Here is another day for God to add to the adventure He’s writing with us in mind, this best-selling Author who believes you and I are gifts the world needs, who believes we have something of value to offer.

What are we helping God write into our stories today? This week? This year?

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5 Comments

  1. Peter

    Hi, and thanks for taking this direction with ‘YOUR STORIES’. You no doubt take so many folk with you on your journey, to inspire ‘them to share’. Personally, you always take me to a place in Oregon, a place I’ve been and know a little about, I’m lifted, joyous and happy.. the photos place me at that location too.. Heceta Head lighthouse.. or perhaps Cannon Beach (a place I/we love). In my memories, I was taken to Cape Foulweather, as we rode down the coast, back in ’92.. the bay was named by our Capt’ James Cook on his sea journeys.. and the gift shop with the sign outside, which says something like, ‘At this place in 1874, NOTHING happened’. I surely could go on and on and on. Oh… and you sent this on our 58th wedding anniversary, this date… thank you, thank you. Our love, God Bless, Bx P & family.

    • Happy anniversary to you, Peter and Barbara! Congratulations on 58 years!

      I can imagine how much fun and challenge it was to cycle the Oregon coast, never sure of the weather from day to day. It’s one of my favorite places in the world!

      • Peter

        Having my Bx with me on 2 wonderful sojourns cycling in Oregon.. Hwy 101… over McKenzie.. along the Siuslaw… Hells Canyon.. what more could I wish for… we both make 80 in this next month.. I’m already there.. rode to our surfing bay this morning (Saltburn… my favourite place).. only 20 miles, but being in God’s wilderness, who could ask for more. Our love, Bx P & family.

  2. Cheryl Nix

    Thanks Marlys. I love reading your blog and I love this one. Thank you again.

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