Everyone has a story to tell. As a doctor, people share their stories with me related to their health and their lives — often about sickness, suffering and loss, and also about celebration and wonderful things. I’m a receiver of stories — and it’s an incredible honor to be entrusted with such a privilege.
Lots of people are now telling their stories on social media platforms, sharing to larger and larger audiences, where stories are often rewarded with “likes” and going “viral.” Thanks to Covid-19, we have been living through historic times that will be remembered like the Black Death of 1350 or the Spanish Flu of 1918 — “history” in the making!
A new storytelling initiative in New Hampshire offers an opportunity for all of us to tell our own stories from this unprecedented time we’re living through. Our Story: Reflections from the Pandemic and Beyond (ourstorynh.com) is a forum to create, share and collect stories across New Hampshire via multiple media and from multiple sectors of life, experience, feelings, hopes and thoughts of life during and before the pandemic and in anticipation of a post-pandemic reality.
Storytelling is transformational. Research has revealed that storytelling benefits both the person sharing and the listener. In fact, listening to other people’s stories has been shown to activate parts of the brain as though we were experiencing the events ourselves, creating a powerful connection to both the narrative and the storyteller. Stories can inspire and motivate and be uniquely memorable as they engage both head and heart. Perhaps this is why storytelling has existed in every culture across time.
What most inspired me to volunteer to help bring the Our Story NH project to fruition is its grounding in an ethical framework that intentionally centers equity. The primary goal is to create a space for self-expression, healing and an opportunity to be heard where participants tell their own stories on their own terms and where the storytellers completely own their stories. There is a therapeutic dimension to telling our stories via whatever medium we choose. Our Story NH will offer a number of ways to capture people’s experiences and personal histories including listening stations around the state as well as digital storytelling workshops. And a community council to inform and guide the project is in development — perhaps you might be interested?
For now, I invite you to share your story via the website (ourstorynh.com) — in text, audio, video, photo or artwork form. We all have stories to tell. Won’t you join us in telling yours?