Remember when you were a child and your mom or dad would read you a story?  I loved hearing stories.  Still do.  Storytelling is for all ages and in many different forms.  It has a role to play in our lives from the time we are born until we breathe our last breath.

Beginning up to 10 weeks before birth, there is evidence that babies pay attention to the sound of the mother’s voice.  This can set the stage for reading stories to infants, because studies have shown that babies who are talked to and read to, develop language much quicker.  Not only is a strong bond being formed by this interaction, but a vocabulary is in the beginning stage of being formed.

Reading storybooks to children helps to get them ready for school. The older one gets, the desire to read will affect our ability to learn concepts, develop interests, and succeed in our endeavors.

Storytelling is the way we communicate history, oral histories passed down in many cultures throughout the world and the stories in our own families, sharing memories of the people who have passed and of new ones being created.  I love telling stories of my childhood to my grandchildren.  It is a way of knitting us closer together.

History books, biographies, auto biographies, novels, all have the ability to connect us in different ways.  Hearing, reading and telling stories of the past teach us so many things if we are willing to learn from them.  Sharing the stories of my life, verbally and written has been a way for me to process experiences, both positive and negative.

Storytelling is a profession as in the daily newscaster, a comedian’s monologue, a librarian reading to children, and in the writers of fiction in a novel.  Ministers of all faiths communicate to their congregations through the stories of their holy texts.

There is value in knowing many stories in our lives, for what they can teach us, how they can entertain us, and how they can draw us closer together with our families and friends.  Storytelling, in short, can be a thread that stitches us together in understanding each other, if only we choose to see it that way.