Story Telling

Canon Andrew White and Dr. Sarah AK Ahmed at Wheaton College for a speaking engagement 

Story telling is an art. I know that a lot of us heard that before.

We all have had those grandparents who sat us around and told us stories about the ancients, and about their lives. Some of us even had that aunt who always told us scary stories that kept us awake at night. I think it is fair to say that we all had friends who we sat with once-upon-a-time and shared the stories we learned with embellishment and oversized non-factual events.

Story time;

The first story teller I met who used his story telling as part of his work was Canon Andrew White. I met Canon White at a Peace in Action conference in New York. It was one of those moments in my life that I will never forget. I was invited to that conference to meet peace makers from around the world. I was advised about an Iraq peace maker who was in a wheel chair. When I approached him it was the Canon. We talked, I told him about my initiative ‘Because, I Love Peace’ and he told me about his work in Iraq. We shared a lot of things during the first half an hour. The way Andrew talked about what he did in life was enchanting. He is one of those people who make you live the story that is being told. I remember the first half an hour of sitting with him, I was literally crying. 

When I started working with Andrew, we went together into a lot of speaking engagements. We also did a lot of fundraising events around the world. Andrew always started his speech or should I say story telling with a laugh. He always kept on talking and creating stories/spicing things up to make the stories nicer and more relatable. I remember the first week I traveled with him, I was siting first row, was listening and was mesmerized by every single sentence that came out of his mouth. Then I started to think about the reality of the stories and Andrew’s version of it. I came to the conclusion that in story telling as an art we don’t have to be too factual all the time as log as we are not hurting ourselves or anyone else, and as long as the story telling is protecting the people mentioned. 

Andrew was able to change people lives through his story telling. He a person who led people to light, and led people to God. He always gave hope to young people, to religious people, and people believed in his stories and wanted to be part of them. All of what he have done was because of the magical ability of story telling. 

I have seen the good and bad part of story telling and realized that it is a weapon that had two sides. I have seen the bad side of story telling and the effect that lies and embellishment can do to the receivers. Story telling is an artand I hope that we keep using it for good. 

Part of writing my diary was to keep all the stories that I have been through from being forgotten. Also to keep the story of my life in case I ceased to exist or something happened to me. I always keep all the stories in a hand written diary hoping to publish it in a book one day. A book that will be filled with hopeful stories, devastating stories, success stories, and scary ones; However, I was advised by my friend and better half Mustafa, to publish a public diary as there is no use of a secret one. That is why, I will try to put some of my stories in this public diary and I would love to see what you think about them, and about the impact of these stories in your lives. For me, the stories that I’ve lived through have shaped the person that I am today. Those stories shaped my existence and I am forever grateful to each and every experience I went through even if it was devastating.

What do you think about story telling? Do you think it is an art? Do you believe in its power?    

Thanks for reading and being part of my life.

Peace and Love, 

Dr. Sarah AK Ahmed 
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Location - Hamilton Ontario CA 

Time - 06:11 PM