{"id":3341,"date":"2022-12-29T12:11:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T17:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3341"},"modified":"2022-12-29T12:11:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T17:11:11","slug":"the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3341","title":{"rendered":"The Gift That Keeps On Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gift That Keeps On Giving<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Storytelling at Briarcliff School – 3\/2007<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1981, an event occurred that changed the direction of my life, both in teaching and in retirement. I was asked by the previous school I had taught in if I was interested in becoming the lead actor in their Middle School musical production of \u201cHans Christian Andersen.\u201d<\/span>**\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

That one play spurred me into the field of storytelling. Through research, which included a lot of reading and going to storytelling events, some even funded by my school district, I started to tell stories to others. It started in my class, then my school, then on to other venues, including some festivals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The more I learned, the greater my repertoire became, and the more I expanded the talents that I had. I loved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved the looks on the faces of my listeners, whether they were an audience of one at home or an entire crowd of people while I was on stage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved sharing folktales that were created by others and stories that I created myself. I loved the reactions that I got from the listeners when I ended my tellings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the stories didn\u2019t stop there. Listeners would come back to me the next day and tell me they shared my stories at home with their families. Years later, when siblings of one of those listeners heard me tell a story, some said, \u201cOh, my sister told me that story when I was younger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mentioning a book or a story I\u2019d shared with someone years ago still brings up characters from the story for them that they can name, that I\u2019ve long forgotten.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just today, David, my child, who I read the book, <\/span>Wolf Story<\/span> more than 20 years ago, when I mentioned the title of the book, said, \u201cOh, that was the story about Rainbow the chicken.\u201d And they were right!<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of times, when I ask ex-students of mine who are now in college or are adults, \u201cWhat do you remember most about 5th grade?\u201d the answer I get is a specific story I told or a song we sang in class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Good stories are remembered.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gift that I enjoy giving and continue to give is the gift of story. It\u2019s a very powerful gift. Watch anyone\u2019s face when you start a sentence with, \u201cThat reminds me of a story.\u201d\u00a0 And as those stories continue to get shared by the people I tell them to, and they continue to share them, the gift keeps on giving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

**<\/b>If you wish to read more about my performance as Hans Christian Andersen in the Middle school play and its impact on me, here\u2019s the link: <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=483<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gift That Keeps On Giving In 1981, an event occurred that changed the direction of my life, both in teaching and in retirement. I was asked by the previous school I had taught in if I was interested in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,175,2,7],"tags":[350,101],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-stories","category-storytelling","category-storytelling-general","category-story-writing","tag-gifts","tag-writers-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3344,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/3344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}