Every story we tell is the story we need to listen to

Every storyteller will tell you that it often takes reading 100 stories to find one that we want to tell, one we want to call our own, work on and add to our repertoire. 
And once the story has been added, no storyteller can really know how long it will remain in his or her active repertoire. 
There are stories we find with a 'BANG', work on with enthusiasm and end up only telling a few times, and then there are those other stories that somehow we find ourselves telling over and over again for years, to all kinds of public and we are not really sure why we them love so much (but we do!).

This is one of the questions I am most often asked during the storytelling trainings:

"How will I find my stories?"

And my answer is always the same:

"Let stories find you"

Telling stories is by no means an activity only practiced by storytellers.

We all tell stories, stories are the way we connect with each other, teach, learn, remember, feel, make decisions, communicate our values, and evaluate our lives (among other things!)

In a given day, we tell stories to our family, friends and colleagues, by the water fountain, over a cup of coffee or over dinner, and even if we spend a day at home away from all communication technology, chances are, we are telling OURSELVES stories.

So the same question arises:  How do you choose your daily stories ?  What do you choose to tell and why?

Most of us are not aware of the stories we tell, and we rarely take the time to really reflect on the reasons that lead us to choose one story over another. 

Our inbox is filled with bits of information waiting to be told as a story to a friend, so are the newspapers, our children's antics, the street scenery, our daily life, or the TV.  To a certain extent we are all exposed to very similar pieces of information.  So how come I choose to tell a story while my friend tells another?

The stories find you, they whisper "tell me" to your ear, they jump in your pocket, travel in your mind, enter your dreams, "tell me", "tell me"...and so we do.
Some storytellers will tell you that resisting telling a story which is demanding to be told can make you physically sick.
So tell the story, and then, listen to it.  What is the story you have chosen to tell.
In every story we tell lies a piece of our own puzzle, a piece of us, a solution, a medicine, a light.
What are the stories you have told today?
What story have you been telling over and over again this week, this month, this year?
What is that little story that somehow made its way into your repertoire and that you find yourself telling to all kinds of people without really knowing why you love it so much?
Stop and listen to that story.
What is it telling you?