This is the New Currency
Ms. Wright…Partly as a result of watching your video online encouraging people to share their stories and be vulnerable, I finally wrote my book. After suffering 11 years, I was able to free myself from debilitating chronic pain.
LJ Ferro, author, A Proven Path To Becoming Pain Free (click here to learn more)
I didn’t know what to expect to find in the large envelope on my desk from a place and person I did not know. Inside was a book and a note attached to it, with these handwritten words. She went on to say she discovered how past traumas can manifest as pain and how expressive writing can be used to eliminate the pain.
I was astonished and grateful and inspired.
Stories are the currency of dignity. I tell you my story, you tell me yours. I see your humanity. You see mine. Stories help us to shift the way we see. Stories help us look again at the people in front of us and see something new. Stories are bridge builders, gap-fillers, hand and heart openers. They are confidence builders, understanding makers, unlockers and even healers.
But be careful. Owning your story takes courage and power. You never know what you’ll discover on your storytelling journey. Don’t be afraid to cough up the hard moments, the moments of shame and embarrassment and trauma and disappointment. This is how we learn. This is how we can even begin to understand another. This is how we begin to understand his-story and her-story and our-story. Stories are the currency of dignity.
We talked about just this in my recent virtual event DIGNITY Over Division: A Critical Discussion, as we explored how to remain curious in the face of division- even visceral, emotional and heated division. Hold on. Pause. Be present to your own emotions bubbling on the inside. And look again. Tell me more. Listen. Listen beyond the emotion to discover the story. You never know what you’ll learn or what the storyteller will reveal. Look again. Just look again. Thank you LJ Ferro!
If you missed the DIGNITY Over Division on November 16, I invite you to watch the recording here.
