Healing in Storytelling

Ever have a moment when someone captures exactly a thought that you've had?

You know, except they articulate it perfectly.
Capture it precisely.
Illustrate it so completely.

Yeah....I get that a lot.

Today, I was sitting in a waiting room and I picked up the Hamilton Spectator to find a delicious little article entitled "The Power in Literary Fiction."

"Whoa," I thoughts to myself, "this sounds like a goodie!"

I'm all about the power of words.

There is such POWER in words.
Written words.
Spoken word.
Rhyming, silly, funny words.

A word after a word after a word delivers sentences and thoughts and ideas.
Words can break or build up.
Words can bully or beautify.
They can motivate or dishearten.

God reveals Himself in His Word.  The gospel of John starts in this way:  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Words inspire.
Words terrify.
Words confuse and clarify.

Words are gorgeous, delicious, tantalizingly, yummy bits of awesomeness.
Ya know?

And then I read this article titled "The Power in Literary Fiction:  There is truth and healing in storytelling" by Thomas Froese.  Let me share an excerpt with you:

"Healing, after all, is the nature of story.

This is why the ancient Greeks would write 'A Healing Place for the Soul' at the entrance to their libraries. It's why if you go to the Bloomsbury district of London, you can visit The School of Life, a bookstore of so-called bibliotherapy. There, like a doctor offering a prescription for your disease.....a bibliotherapist will prescribe for you a certain story to read.

This is the power and trust that's often found in literary fiction. "

There is healing in storytelling. Perhaps this is why so many of us have taken to blogging, speaking, and telling our stories.

There IS healing in story.

Just another reason why WORDS are so terribly terribly delightful.

***sigh***

- BvH