Several years ago I was watching the Rosie O’Donnell show and she said something that I have never forgotten. She said, “Everyone has a story that will break your heart,” and it’s so true. Everyone does have a story that will break your heart and hopefully many more that won’t. We all have stories, some sad and others happy, and we have to write them down so that our stories don’t end when we die but carry our memories on to teach and inspire our posterity.
I’ve been thinking a lot about of this since I had the privilege of attending an event sponsored by Cherish Bound last month. Cherish Bound is a company that helps people write, publish, and preserve their stories, and I had the opportunity to listen to two different tellers at this event. Their stories were inspirational. I can’t even describe all the feelings I had during these two stories – it was a moving experience that has convinced me of the importance of writing and sharing my own stories. If you’ve never listened to a storyteller, it’s something you must do. (If you live in Utah, the Timpanogas Storytelling Festival is coming up at the beginning of September, and I can’t wait to go and hear more.)
After this experience, I couldn’t wait to get started on telling my own story. I got to try out the Cherish Bound book publishing system, and I had a great time writing my memories and creating a book with my very own stories in it.
Cherish Bound has an easy system that allows you to create an individualized book with both pictures and text. I created a book to tell the story of how my husband and I met and fell in love. Talking together about our memories was a unifying experience – now I completely understand the meaning of the phrase “The Power of Story.” 
Creating a book with Cherish Bound is easy – you choose from a variety of basic book formats and then can select one of dozens of templates for the layout of each page with varying text and picture slots. Uploading images and inserting your text is easy. And the finished product is a professional, high quality book that will last for generations.
Since being inspired by Cherish Bound, I have taken some time each Sunday evening to answer a “Conversation Card” question. A great way to start writing your own stories is to answer a question, and Cherish Bound has sets that you can use for that purpose. It has been such a renewing experience to write and remember the details of my life.
Everyone has a story that will break you heart, and there is real power in those stories. I hope my children and grandchildren will read and learn from my stories someday and in turn write their own.
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