The Importance of Story in my Life

This post is about the importance of story in my life. It is an entry into Chris Brogan's giveaway of 100 copies of Donald Miller's book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."

I was born into a controlled world - I escaped through stories in books. Then in my early twenties, I began to realize I had choices about how my life story did or didn't turn out. I slowly made my own choices, rather than allow my environment and circumstances to control me. Good change takes time, but over the next decade my life became better.  

In my late thirties, my husband helped me take another step in realizing the choices we have in writing the story we want to. We sold our business, put household stuff in storage, packed a motorhome and traveled the country for six months with our three sons. Life was good!

Until ...

A day in May when it all changed - we accidently met five semi-trucks on a highway. My husband and sons were fine, I was not. My injuries were massive and threatened my life. Somehow I defied the odds and lived. "Miracle!" The doctor said, "but I'm not sure you'll walk again."

The lessons of the previous decades lay dormant, until the words of a good therapist brought them back. "To some degree, your level of recovery is up to you." A glimmer of hope emerged as I realized I had choices in how this unwanted portion of my story turned out. I did every exercise given to me, plus a few extra. And I prayed. I did research and had a few repair surgeries, did more exercises and prayed more. 

I love books, so I read stories. Stories of people that overcame the "impossible." They helped me breathe and gave me hope. Though life would be different than I dreamed of, a good life was still possible. I soon realized that I retained and gained so much more from stories than from 3 or 5 or 7 point 'teaching' books.  

Last year, I went to a conference called STORY. The inspiration from this event was amazing and the long-term effects are still unseen. Then I read "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. Wow! This gave me even more information about how to live the story that I want to. 


Part of living the best story I can, involves telling and writing my story to share with others. As I work on that, I pray I can tell in an interesting story, because I know the value of great stories.

The Importance of Story in my Life is summed up with one word - priceless!