"Tell me a story"

Tell me a story!
Tell me a story!
Tell me a story ~
you promised
that you would!

Tell me about the
birds & bees,
how to make a
chicken sneeze.

Tell me a story -
you promised
that you would!

As mentioned in my very first posting, many a Lockhart child delighted at Mom singing that ditty to us. It resounds with me still, today.

Small wonder.

For five years, it was my pleasure to teach high school science ~ biology, astronomy, earth science. I taught about the composition of our bodies, of our planet, of the solar system & universe. I did not teach, however, about what I believe really makes up our core being ~ our stories.

Science teaches us that our bodies are basically only an appearance of solid matter. Actually, we are more water than anything else, and even that's composed almost entirely of unidentified empty space.

Our knowledge of our physical make-up changes with every new discovery, but throughout the millenia one thing has remained true ~ we may have come from the seas or from the stars or who knows where, but our most real self begins & ends with our stories.

I believe that how well we respect our experience as a constantly changing collection of stories ~ and honor the same as true for every living creature ~ determines how well we function in life.

It's all stories, any of which can change in an instant.

That "changing in an instant" business can get us into extremely hot water. Many's the time I've based an expectation of what someone will do on what turns out to be an outdated storyline. Or assumed that the way I experienced something is the same as anyone else.

Over the years, I've been blessed & helped along my way by reading, listening to, talking with many voices. Some have been as close as across a table, sharing a cuppa. Others are in my bookcase, my bedside table, my video collection. Before developing my current wonderful circle of friends, my greatest counselors could be found in Barnes & Noble, in Borders, on PBS or Oprah, all sharing their own stories in their own voices. All deepening my own.

The reason for this book, in large part, is to give a tip of the had to these life mentors, to the stories they shared about themselves or the lives they saw as possible. I've never turned to them as teachers - as lecturers in what I should be doing - but as educators, men & women who help draw out my own stories.

We are our stories. These are some of mine.