This is a guest post written by my dear friend and inspiration, Amanda Walker.

Individuals, families and whole communities are connected through stories. These stories can make an average person courageous, a worried man hopeful and a broken human find healing.  When a person has a reservoir of great stories they can draw on them when they need encouragement.  Shared stories strengthen and define a community by creating a common language among them.

Take for example the story of The Little Red Hen.  We all probably remember how the story unfolds.  The Hen asks for help with planting, harvesting and eventually baking the bread.  We learned the moral that “you reap what you sow” as well as “if you help with the work you can enjoy the reward”.

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