It’s 7 A.M. I have spent time: in the presence of God, walked played with and fed the dogs, finished my Bible reading, made myself a tea and now I am catching up on writing both blogs and Storyworth.

For those who might not be familiar with STORYWORTH here’s a link. I purchased the program as a Christmas gift for my mother. As many of you know she is walking the pathway of vascular dementia. As the disease slowly takes pieces of her mind and body from us, her world becomes smaller and smaller.

One of the things she still has is her past and so Storyworth is helping me to preserve that for her in a story book we are creating together through the weekly question/ conversation starters the website offers. The questions open discussions which lead to other questions the answers to which sometimes take a day or two to ferret out, but I am learning a lot about my mother and her family which I never knew. One of the chief things I have learned is that stories were not often told in her house and so this experience is new for her.

I guess as I think about it even I did not grow up in a house that told many stories. But my father did. It is through his parents that I know a lot about the history of the Lillie side of my family. Growing up I spen Saturdays at my grandparents house. Each Saturday I spent was well scheduled. I was allowed to watch a cartoon in the morning with breakfast, Then I was sent out to play for a bit. At ten A.M. or so we went grocery shopping. After that we would take a ride in which my grandparents would use the journey to share a story about the history of their family or the town they grew up in. Then we would go back to the camp where they lived, on Packard’s Pond, and have lunch. While my grandfather watched bowling, Gramma and I would play a game and she would share with me more of the stories of their life.

It was from here I drew my love for writing and creating stories. As I think on this, I am fascinated by the idea of how people become storytellers.

WAS YOUR FAMILY A STORYTELLING FAMILY?