Opportunity LiveBlog: Sharing Your Story
Daniel Taylor is a storytelling professional. He understands the importance of where to start a story, how to tell it, and what its conclusion should be. At Opportunity International’s fall Board of Governors Conference, each session he led was standing room only. We are delighted to have him join us again for our Spring 2010 Confernece. The wisdom he shares resonates so deeply with the Opportunity family.
Daniel’s seminal book, Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories, is powerful. It walks the reader through the art of recognizing and of telling your story in a compelling way. Today he shared from his book and also from his life when he spoke at Opportunity’s plenary session.
Today, Daniel reminded us that “we live in stories, not just hear them. We inhale and exhale stories. Whenever human beings have needed to explain something important to themselves, they tell a story.
“When we ‘share her story,’ we are also shaping our own. Once we know her story, she is a character in our own story. And when we play our part, we are a character in hers.” This is a powerful way to connect Opportunity’s client stories with our own narratives.
Those indeed are wise words from a professional storyteller.
“Storytelling is the ointment of the Healer,” he says. He emphasizes that the stories we tell do not only have a healing effect on the people in the stories, but also on the author. “By telling Opportunity’s stories, we are bringing more shalom into the world.”
Daniel has been a supporter of Opportunity International’s for 20 years and is a member of the Board of Governors. He is a professor of literature and writing at Bethel University. We are privileged to be a student of this wise teacher.