Become A Hero At Rescuing Your Valuable Stories

“I am a rescuer of stories hidden among the ordinary.  I give these stories voice as templates to inspire others with untold stories so that they will know the satisfaction of rescuing their own stories.”  – Nancy Cullen

This BLOG began as a place I could record and share stories.  Stories stemming from four areas outlined on THE STONEBRIDGE About page.  This is my version of a Sacred Bundle, a practice began by my father.

Capturing, or as I like to say, rescuing, stories from our thoughts, memories and obscurity is a learned skill.  There are processes, frameworks and, yes, a bit of discipline involved.  These are not apparent, but run in the background like a good operating system in a computer.

Not complex, but they must be identified and adapted to your own style.  Once in place, becoming a hero at rescuing stories feels natural.

My Hero Model

My father was a quiet example of a story rescuer.  His method was quite simple, as were the tools he used:

• his thoughts and observations
• a quiet place to think and write,
• paper
• a manual typewriter.

Mine are the same, except I have replaced the typewriter and paper with a laptop!

Dad wrote during quiet hours in the office at “The Shop”, his place of business where he sold new and used auto parts.  He stored his writing in a dark blue vinyl satchel.  Occasionally he would let one of us read these musings.

I write in my “vision room”, in the W.B. Alliston house next to our historic landmark home.  I store them on this BLOG for the world to read and comment on.

Find Your Personal Why

How can you become a Hero At Rescuing Your Valuable Stories?  First, define why rescuing stories is important, then why it is important to you.  This is a great assist to not only begin, but to continue.

The “why”, for me, arrived from either discovering some delightful piece of information that had gotten lost or loosing a significant person in my life, then realizing how much had passed with them.

An example of the former was an entry in the family bible about my maternal great great grandfather’s journey from Germany to Kansas.  It was discovering a piece of my own history.

Of course, the loss of a person from this earth is sorrowful, but the loss of their stories for lack of recording only adds to that sorrow.  Taking the time to write these things down is a way to preserve their legacy, whatever it entailed.

There are many “whys’ in rescuing stories.  Find yours.

Your Hero Model

Second, think about what kind of stories you want to record.  Your personal observations of daily life, family events or conversations, or even the story behind particular objects and what they represent.

For instance, a collection of sea shells.  Where were they collected?  What was the occasion? Who were you with?

Third, assemble your own simple tool kit.  Decide a time, place and means where the rescued stories will be recorded and stored.  Look for ways to fit into your life routine, for example:

• Use a voice recorder during your daily commute or walk
• Journal each morning, evening or even once a week, with thoughts and details on your chosen topic
• Catch ideas as they fly by on a digital voice or text app such as Evernote or OneNote

To get started, I have developed a tool to help you decide what kind of stories you want to rescue along with some suggested ways to begin “storing” them.

Click here for your free PDF download and start today!

I inherited Dad’s writings, and have compiled them into a book.  It is an example of what is possible with humble tools.  It can be viewed and purchased by clicking on this link.

What kind of story will you recue this week?  Please share in the comments