Another segment from the book, A Million Miles, A Thousand Years, by Donald Miller, I love is this.
“A good storyteller doesn’t just tell a better story, though. He invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.
When we were in Uganda, I went with Bob to break ground on a new school he was building. The school board was there, along with local officials. The principal of the school had bought three trees that Bob, the government official and the principal would plant to commemorate the breaking of the ground. Bob saw me standing off, taking pictures of the event, walked over and asked if I would like to plant the tree for him.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he said. “It would be great for me to come back to this place and see the tree you planted, to be reminded of you every time I visit.”
I put down my camera and helped dig the how and set the tree into the ground, covering it to its tiny trunk. And from that moment on, the school was no longer Bob’s school; the better story was no longer Bob’s story. It was my story too. I’d entered in the story of Bob. And it’s a great story about providing an education to children who would otherwise go without. After that I donated funds to Bob’s work in Uganda, and I’m even working to provide a scholarship to a child I met in a prison in Kampala who Bob and his lawyers helped free. I’m telling a better story with Bob.
Nobody gets to watch a parade.
Don Miller
Including others into your life, whether it is in the trying times or the joyous ones, weaves a common thread, a line that connects us with each other, and has us marching along in friendship.
He has a great story of a New Years Day parade his family started in his neighborhood, one where no one could watch, and all had to participate in, which ended in a big picnic. You could opt out, but not watch.
Isn’t that a great metaphor for life, a parade without spectators?
Even if you are out sitting, that is your contribution to the parade, sitting down, while the parade moves forward, or are you on a float of pretend?
I will remember that by allowing another to be part of a great moment, it more than doubles that moment.
Life is Reality’s Parade!
I M Perfect lady 