Born Storytellers
My little girl’s words are developing. The joy on her face as she hangs the words together to share meaning, communicate a memory or to ask for what she needs. It’s such a privilege to journey along this path with her.
She recently told her first discernible story. To a friendly man sat opposite us on the train coming back from a weekend camping in Saltburn-by-the- sea. It went something like this:
Bee
Door
Waving.
Bee
Door
Waving.
Mummy’s back
Rain
Bee by Door
Waving
Mummy’s back
Rain (plip plop)
Rain (plip plop)
She was remembering something that happened earlier that day. As we left the campsite, the leisure centre on the site next door must have been doing some promotional activities and someone was dressed in a giant bee costume and presumably having a break by the door at the top of the escape stairs from the upstairs of the building. When the giant bee had seen us they’d waved, and Hazel had waved back. Whilst this was happening she’d been in the sling on my back, and it was raining.
Hazel repeated this story a number of times, growing in confidence as we remembered other details, adding in joining words to make a fuller story together to the hilarity of our train companion.
This might not be a very interesting story, but it got me thinking.
We are all born with an ability and desire to share stories with each other. To communicate at the most basic level (remember how it feels when you’re struggling in an unfamiliar language reaching for words you don’t have). To throw out words to others in the hope someone will catch them and share in their meaning with us. That joy of remembering. Sometimes the pain. Putting words together to share experiences that make up our fleeting time on this beautiful earth together. It’s quite wonderful when you break it down. As strange as these stories may be — from waving to a giant bee across a car park to the great works of literature. In that moment Hazel brought a tiny recognition of what it means to experience her world and shared it with us.
I hope I’m ready to listen and catch the next one.
