We are storytellers.

a mid-story misfit.

Sometimes I forget who I am.

It’s not (fingerquote) a mom-thing (unFQ)  as I loathe when women denigrate other women by implying their lives are easy by virtue of the fact they have no children.

It’s a human thing.

We’re all so busy being super, nailing deadlines and crossing stuffs off our to-do lists who has time to focus on self-definitions?

Until a few weeks ago Id have happily said: Im a blogger.

Until a few weeks ago, that is, when I was gifted a chat with one of my favorite people.

She used in reference to me a phrase it had been far too long since Id used to describe myself:

shauna reminded me Im a teller of stories.

As I mulled her words for the rest of my day I paid close attention to the stories I long to tell.

The Tornado smearing thick, sticky slashes of white nail polish on her fingers so they could be “fancy like Mama’s feet.” 

A man clad head-to-toe in gold, riding a spray-painted gold bike (gold balloons tied to handlebars), wearing a gold helmet, biking down sidewalk and realizing no one gave him a second glance but me.

Feelings of being awkward & alone as I waited for school release and no mothers responded to my myriad attempts at conversation.

(photo unavailable)

These are the stories Im called to share because they’re about me and they’re about you.

Blogging is storytelling because creating relationships—even in social media—is about the story.

A reader once shared she’d thought Id lost my sparkle (<—-her word. I’d have used the world GLITTER).

The reason behind said sparkle-shedding, according to her, was too many brand partnerships.

I took her words to heart.

I reread branded posts and challenged myself as to *why* I agreed to them.

It was always all about the story. It was always the result of a phone call which made me shout YES!!  It was always about longing to share my history on a topic and the sponsor was merely the launching pad for my storytelling.

I also considered partnerships I declined.

There was never anything “wrong” with the company—it was because I had no story to share.

No moment of this fits perfectly because… or I need to talk about you because the story there helps me better share my story in the process.

Storytelling…blogging…is about entertainment, normalizing life experiences & stories.

I shared the story of my move. You normalized.

All of these disjointed realizations coalesced when Shauna said:

You are a storyteller.  Whatever topic you choose—fitness, motherhood etc—you are a teller of stories.

I am a storyteller who’s currently using the medium of blogging to weave her tales. 

with me there’s *always* a story…

Unlike fiction—where I create a world & stand firmly on the outside—I play a central character & share my stories in an effort to find my way within a larger, social media world.

I believe we’re all called to be the superheroes of our own own journeys & work through our stories in order to make sense of our lives.

And you?

Do you view blog-reading as storied entertainment?Are you a blogger who’s a sharer of stories rather than conveyer of information?Do you think bloggers lose their SPARKLE when they blog about anything *but* their tales?

View the original article here