I love telling stories.

Maybe it’s because I was born and raised in Upper East Tennessee. I grew up in Elizabethton, TN which is a stones throw away from Jonesborough, TN.

If you know anything about Jonesborough, then you know it is the mecca for Story Tellers. Some people in my parent’s circle of friends were fantastic story tellers and so at any get together you were likely at some point to hear… “Tell us a story!” followed by a chorus of “please?” and “pretty please?” and if we were desperate  “pretty please with a cherry on top?”

So, I guess it’s in my blood.

Stories add flavor to life and can often communicate in ways normal conversations never do.

If I want to get a strong point across to my kids I often approach it with a story.

An example: when my kids were young, instead of warning them of the dangers of online predators I told stories I called “Facebook Friends”

They often started with a small boy or girl, dangerously close in age and looks to my children, approached by another “kid” while online.

The story went downhill from there, always – always ending with the small child being kidnapped and thrown in a dungeon, tortured to death and never, ever seeing their parents again.

Needless to say my kids are cautiously hesitant about talking to random strangers on social media.