When walking into Teresa Clark’s class Harvesting Story: Nurturing a Storytelling Family, she made the following promise: “This class will be interactive.” Clark held true to her promise during her terrific class, which took place during the Saturday afternoon session of RootsTech. Her presentation was part lecture, part audience participation, and a complete blast for all of us who attended. By the end of it, Clark had us chatting with our neighbors as we helped each other draw out the stories of our families.
The Importance of Story
According to Clark, our family stories are not just about entertaining each other. They also serve a deeper purpose. Our stories have the power to save our families. By knowing and understanding the problems that our ancestors overcame, we are better prepared to overcome our own problems, and inspire future generations to do the same.
“Crafting our personal experiences into stories to be shared is a way to rethink problems, redefine pain, and empower those we influence,” begins a quote by Jude Treder-Wolff that Clark shared during her presentation.
How to Remember Our Stories
But how do you begin? According to Clark, stories breed stories. When we hear stories from friends or family, they’ll often trigger stories from our past. Clark also recommended a technique called Story Plays. This technique can be used with all ages to draw stories out. Clark says that, “When our hands play, the mind relaxes,” allowing us to tell stories naturally.
Story Play #1: Beach Balls
Take a beach ball and a marker for a ‘draw it and share it’ activity. You could ask the question, “What are you thankful for,” to trigger a memory, and then have family members draw on the beach ball what they are thankful for.
Story Play #2: Sidewalk Chalk
Using sidewalk chalk, have family members create an image of a time and a place they’d like to return to
Story Play #3: Is it Honored at the Table?
A great idea for a family reunion. Each family makes a dish and brings the recipe and the story behind it to the event. By the end of the event, each family will walk away with new recipes, stories, and fresh memories of their own.
Breathing Life into Your Family Stories
Once you have stories, how do you make sure they are vivid and captivating to your listener? Clark recommended the following:
- Identify and build upon the universal life lesson within the story. What is the meaning of this particular story?
- Show a transition from problem to progress. How did the person in your story overcome the problem?
- Someone in the story has to get something. For example: He crested the ridge, she saved the farm, they defended the homeland…
Clark recommended that most stories could be shared in under a minute, and it’s helpful to use a timer to make sure they’re kept within that time frame. She also recommended using digital recorders to capture these stories. Three audio recording apps she recommended were voice memos, audio notes, and one available from StoryCorps.
Remaining Consistent
At the end of the presentation, Clark challenged us to record a moment a day, with the reminder that story breeds story. In this way we can strengthen our families now, and inspire the generations who will come after us.
