A group of my blogging homeys collaborate every two weeks on a Tuesday to sound off about a specific topic.  It's called "Let's Blog Off".  The current discussion is WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY-STORY TELLING.   Without further ado:

Story telling is like a kitchen. Huh? I'm sorry. Can't help it. It is. Think back to your childhood. I bet there is a kitchen you can remember in there somewhere. Either it's your own or, as in my case, the kitchens of my grandmothers. The kitchen is a story in itself where there was always something interesting afoot. The smells were enticing as well as the flavors and activities. What other room of the house offers as much? Well story telling is like that. A good story teller can engage all the senses. It goes back to our very roots in childhood. For me, it began as soon as I learned to speak. If I could shut up long enough I could listen to a story. My own mother read Alice in Wonderland and the stories of Hans Christian Anderson to me.   Soon I was following her around the house with a book just begging her to show me how to read, as if it was something she could just easily explain in a couple minutes! I finally cracked the code in first grade. Books, and their stories have been a big love in my life ever since. Another story telling memory is from when my own son was very small. I made up my own series of stories tailor-made just for him about a crazy dragon named Smokey who sported polka dotted swimming trunks! (What was I smokin?)

Then there are the family stories.  They only survive if we tell them artfully.  Who knows if they're even true?  (Let's hope not all of them are).   Nevertheless they are the threads that tie us together from generation to generation connecting us and making sense of where we find ourselves.  Check out some of the other responses here.

Next post I will announce the winner of the Orgaline drawer organizer.  Stay tuned!