I love to tell stories. Especially stories about real people and real experiences. It is amazing what people will share with you when you give them a listening ear. Leo Buscaglia, a tireless advocate of the power of love, once said, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Henri Nouwen also said, "The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness that is the friend who cares."
The following stories come from a variety of sources. Having always been generous with my time and talents and never turned down an opportunity to serve my community, I always made a sincere effort to determine the needs of others and commit myself to helping in whatever way I could.
I have come in contact with a many and great variety of people. I was a volunteer at my local VA Hospital for over 25 years, I answered two suicide hotlines, answered the phones for 211, and even kept vigil once a week at a homeless shelter. In every instance I always take the time to listen to the people I am serving. Since people love to talk about themselves (hence, this blog), they sometimes share their innermost secrets, fears, failures and dreams. I would like to share some of those stories with anyone who is also a lover of people and the stories we weave with our lives. Of course, all the names have been changed to protect the innocent and, there are many stories I can't tell because they were shared in the strictest of confidence.
Getting to know someone does bring up an interesting question: Does a person change because you know more about them? The answer is no but we change if we let it change us. In the extreme, consider Dr. Frankenstein's creation, "Adam." Did the angry mob seek to destroy the creature that they thought they knew? Hopefully new knowledge does not release the latent monster which could be within us.
The following stories come from a variety of sources. Having always been generous with my time and talents and never turned down an opportunity to serve my community, I always made a sincere effort to determine the needs of others and commit myself to helping in whatever way I could.
I have come in contact with a many and great variety of people. I was a volunteer at my local VA Hospital for over 25 years, I answered two suicide hotlines, answered the phones for 211, and even kept vigil once a week at a homeless shelter. In every instance I always take the time to listen to the people I am serving. Since people love to talk about themselves (hence, this blog), they sometimes share their innermost secrets, fears, failures and dreams. I would like to share some of those stories with anyone who is also a lover of people and the stories we weave with our lives. Of course, all the names have been changed to protect the innocent and, there are many stories I can't tell because they were shared in the strictest of confidence.
Getting to know someone does bring up an interesting question: Does a person change because you know more about them? The answer is no but we change if we let it change us. In the extreme, consider Dr. Frankenstein's creation, "Adam." Did the angry mob seek to destroy the creature that they thought they knew? Hopefully new knowledge does not release the latent monster which could be within us.
