We made it onto NPR!
In case you missed last week, a condensed version of a recent story that I shared with you made it onto my local NPR station, The Public’s Radio 89.3 FM!
The story is a part of a national storytelling initiative called This I Believe, which features local storytellers reading their personal stories for community listeners every week.
And, I have you to thank for it.
Because, without you (and, for that matter, without my family!) not only would I have pitched NPR to share a story with their audience, I never would have had this story to share in the first place.
Listen Now to “Holiday Adjustments” on NPR
Click here to go to ThePublicsRadio.org and listen to Holiday Adjustment
(To listen to the segment, click the somewhat discreet turquoise “Listen 4 Min” button to the right of your screen. You’ll see a transcript of the host’s introduction above the fold, then a transcript of my condensed story beneath it.)
The broadcast is a part of a national storytelling initiative hosted by NPR called This I Believe, which features local storytellers reading some of their personal stories every week.
The story that I had shared on NPR was one you’ll recall: how my family and I celebrated our remaining major holidays of 2020 over 6 days this past October while we could celebrate them as a family.
Based on your positive responses to the story, I suspected that people outside of our community of readers might also enjoy the lighthearted reminder that we all still possess some power of choice to tell our own stories for ourselves, even in 2020.
That’s why I keep saying “we” made it onto NPR.
You deserve as much credit for this fun instance of media attention as I do.
This isn’t a “victory” for me, personally.
It’s entirely and perfectly reflective of what we — you, me, and our growing community of a few-thousand Self-Storied Life readers — are building with one another.
Although it’s me who’s putting a voice to themes we discuss all the time — like the power of storytelling; why journaling is an important outlet for self-inquiry, and how to live in integrity to self-knowledge principles in today’s world — without you, I couldn’t say that I’d be sharing these stories like I am.
Your feedback, your positive responses, your questions, and your participation — even, on rare occasions, thoughtfully sharing what friction or resistance you might feel in reaction to certain stories or ideas — is one of the most important but unseen influences on the stories that I share.
Without having a community to write for — without having you, specifically, in mind, and what you care about, and what you’re working toward, and the light you continue to share in the world — I might never have written the piece, at all.
So, thank you.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for reading these words.
Thank you for considering this worthy of your attention, care, and consideration.
Thank you for so thoughtfully engaging in the ideas that we share together, and processing what feels worthy and deserving of your energy, and for making them your own, for yourself.
Thank you for taking ownership of your words, deeds, thoughts, and stories.
Thank you for modeling personal leadership, responsibility, and self-knowledge in a world that needs more and more of us to embody and inhabit them, than ever.
And, most of all, a big, special thank you to my mom, Jane; my dad, David, and my sister, Bianca, for creating an experience together that was worthy of writing about in the first place.
Without my family, this story never could have been told in the first place.
Here’s to you, here’s to us, and here’s to what we can only ever really create together.
It does start within…
…but it becomes real in relationship to one another.
