I recently attended a day-long event that involved touring a bunch of old, historic churches in the area.
I was mainly focused on getting photos and quotes from the event. I would have enjoyed a leisurely walk around the buildings, but I didn't really have time to do that, and I didn't mind since I still got to see quite a lot.
While I was eying up a particularly elegant old sanctuary in the front of one church, one of the event's participants came up to me. He was an older gentleman who had come on the tour with his wife, and I'd spoken a little bit with both of them earlier.
I greeted him. He started talking about the old architecture, and how all of these old buildings "have a story." Aged, many of them crumbling-- but all of these churches had stories to tell.
"Like all of the people here," he added. "Everyone has a story."
I agreed, but didn't really have anything to add to that.
He looked at me seriously: "You have a story too, but you're not sharing it with anyone right now since you're busy working." It wasn't an accusation; it was just a statement. It was true.
He said a few more words, then went off to look at the rest of the church. I wrote down what he said.
I think many times it's easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of life, whether it's work or what have you.
It's easy to work on your own productivity, and forget the story that you have to offer- just in being who you are, based on your unique life experiences.
I often forget that the value of a person is more than their productivity level. Their value is intrinsically in themselves: in their stories.
And the only way to really learn others' stories is to mutually open up and share them.
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