“Stories are medicine for our false isolation. A way to forge connection and community and help shift our course . . . the seed forms of culture we carry around within us.” ~Nina Simons, founder of Bioneers

Your story is your power and your truth.

My friend, the master storyteller and storytelling teacher Laura Simms, sees stories as a path to healing oneself and the world. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, told a story that changed how Americans thought about slavery and intensified support for abolition. It became the second best-selling book of the Nineteenth Century, behind only the Bible, itself a collection of stories.

In fact, throughout the writing of No Excuses and on the 9 Ways Blog, I’ve been most inspired by the stories of women, and men. They have moved me, mentored me, and taught me. I hopes their stories do the same for you when you read them.

I’ve told my own life story so often I am sometimes bored with it, but it is always what people are most interested in, no matter what other substantive content I might think I prefer to impart.

• What stories do you tell yourself about yourself? How do they enhance or limit you?
  
• What story would you like to share with us today? Please do!
  
• How have stories moved you to take action at work, in politics, or in your personal life?