Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. ~ Barry Lopez

Great stories happen to those who can tell them. ~ Ira Glass

Martin Buber passes on a delightfully transformational Hasidic tale:

MY GRANDFATHER was paralyzed. Once he was asked to tell a story about his teacher and he told how the Holy Baal Shem Tov used to jump and dance when he was praying. My grandfather stood up while he was telling the story and the story carried him away so much that he had to jump and dance to show how the master had done it. From that moment, he was healed. This is how stories ought to be told.

♣ I’ve always loved this story. I use it in the article “Listening to the Wind in the Wheat” and elsewhere to understand the graced action of the Eucharist.