what is a story?
As many of us have experienced tour guided walks or explorations, what makes them so magical is the guides ability to point out both the obvious and the easily missed landmarks and then, through words, explain their importance. Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche communities supported this value of words and stories when he stated “To name something is to bring it out of chaos, out of confusion, and to render it understandable” (p. 25, 1998). Later he went on and explained, “As we start to really get to know others, as we begin to listen to each other’s stories, things begin to change… We begin the movement from exclusion to inclusion, from fear to trust, from closedness to openness, from judgment and prejudice to forgiveness and understanding. It is a movement of the heart” (Vanier, p. 83, 1998).