When all is said and done

Once upon a time, and all good stories start that way, once upon a time in a place far removed from where I now sit, I recall telling stories to small children. Interestingly enough I was also a small child a little bigger than those smaller than me. Later when I was a little taller but not much older I told stories to more children as I babysat. I went on to tell stories to my own children and to the children of other people who came to stay. Telling stories is a thing I love to do. To embellish the mundane and give it a glamour. Stories make the ordinary-extraordinary, the dull - bright and help find hope in the hopeless.

There have been times in my life where I have felt as though I was at the bottom of a deep dark well where the circle of light at the top was too far away for me to see it and the darkness with all its slime and damp seeping into the marrow of my bones was all there was. Even the darkest place can be made livable with the light of a good story. Stories are the true magic in the world. Technology is wonderful but it does not have the magic of a well told story from a flesh and blood person.

If I were truly deeply honestly to answer the question of what I want to do with my life, it is this; I want to tell stories. I want to see bodies lean toward me captured in the weave of the story, I want to hear exclamations that the story cannot end,Ii want to see bright eyes and hear eager requests for more. I want to tell old stories and new stories and old stories with new twists and embellishments and new stories with old themes and I want to tell them all the time.

One of the most beautiful gifts I have ever had was having a young woman tell me that the stories I told her, she was telling her children. I want to keep telling children stories.