Storytelling

I love a good story.  I spend a lot of time listening to or reading books about other people's stories.  It's how I learn about people, life and how to experience life.  Not necessarily through their experiences, but how they have learned and grown.  I'm fascinated with the human experience.

As a child and into my teenage years, I demanded a lot of attention from my parents and siblings.  When telling about my day, I wanted to share all the details of my experiences.  Possibly, to make sure they really got to feel what I felt.  I often heard the phrase, "Paula, get to the point".  It wasn't until I was an adult (recently) that I realized that not everyone learns through others' experiences the way I do.  But it was still important to me to share the details.  It wasn't for lack of care that I was told to "hurry up" in my story telling, it was that I was the middle child of seven children and they all demanded attention and wanted to share their stories.  It's how I believe we connect with other humans in the human experience, telling our stories.  

There are great story tellers our there and oh how I wish I was one of them.  I do my best.  But to hear people like Brené Brown and Byron Katie share their stories and draw you in to be enthralled in their lives, makes for a great read.  I am certainly nowhere near their caliber of story telling, but aspire to be a great story teller in my own right.  Heaven knows I tried as a kid.  That's just it though, sometimes not sharing every little detail may be the key to a great story.  Allowing the reader to "choose your own ending" is intriguing.  

It's time to share the story and become vulnerable in the process.  For ten years I have worked on sharing my family's story.  Not only have I been writing about it, but also living it, wherein the story doesn't have an ending.  The story goes on.  In this process I have learned much about the human connection experience and continue to learn more everyday.  I am not the expert on human connections, but through our story I have grown leaps and bounds in my human connection experiences.  As I mentioned, I am fascinated with human connections, it's something that not only is in my nature, but has been nurtured in me through my life experiences.  I grew up in the military, traveling the world and seeing how many different types of people lives their lives.  I learned respect for races, ethnicities, religions and cultures different than me.  Everyone is a child of God and everyone has a story they live.  I believe got gave me these experiences to help build my character and viewpoint of people in preparation for what He had in store for my life.  

Open adoption.  That is what He was preparing me for.  Not just the adoption experience as we grew our family, but the open adoption experience as our family didn't just grow through children, but with multiple families.  God gave me eyes to see and love all people.  To respect and accept the differences we all walk in.  I believe that is why my family has been given the experiences we have, to be able to have the capacity to love and experience genuine human connections.  

This is the story I tell in my upcoming book.  Human Connection; From an Open Adoption Journey.  I share our story with the life lessons I've learned in creating authentic human connections.  Having an open heart and open mind to the differences we all live and the value everyone brings to the table.  

So when living your life, remember you have a story to tell.  Whether you share it with the world or hold it close to you for you to embrace, everyone has a story.  

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