Ann Mari Urwald's story

We continue to give space for all who want to express their experiences about 'storytelling as a healing art'.

At the storytelling festival in Lejre some years ago I was telling stories for deaf children in the large tent. It requires some breaks to give time for interpretation. But there were not only deaf children. There were also other children and adults.
I told an African story about Ntikuma, who happens to buy a drum instead of black eyed beans for the family. He can’t make himself return the drum, It has become part of him, his legs will not move. So he has to go on home with a long line of happy people following because his drumming has made them dance. And what does his mother say?
‘Well, how could we know that you had a talent for drumming’, she says. ‘We had never thought of that ourselves. Thank God for that.’ Ntikuma was forgiven right away, and they just ate corn porridge instead.
When I had told the story, which of course is much longer than this short summary, an old man with tears in his eyes came me to me and thanked me. The story had moved him deeply and unburdened his heart, he said.
His gratitude and emotion made a deep impression on me. A possible reason is that he through the story got the forgiveness he had subconsciously longed for for years. And that is what stories can do. We can mirror ourselves in them, and when the right story passes our ears, it unburdens the soul, or confirms it.

Ann Mari Urwald, author and storyteller
www.amurwald.dk