This morning, I shared the story of my various health journeys with someone new. Recounted in a matter of a few minutes, rather than experienced over almost four years, my tales of ovarian cancer, perianal skin cancer and breast cancer avoidance sound daunting—even to me. Fortunately, I lived each one of the 1,335 days since my ovarian cancer diagnosis one day at a time.

This afternoon, I listened to an interview on the BBC's Desert Island Discs with Jamaican-born photographer Vanley Burke, billed as "the godfather of black British photography." Speaking about Caribbean emigrants to the United Kingdom after the Second World War, Burke said:

As a group of people, we need to be in charge of our history. History is a by-product of life. And it will be written whether we participate in the process or not. And, I felt, as a group of people who are living this history, it is important that we get involved in documenting [it]. And, as a photographer, I felt it was a good way of...helping to write this history.

Burke's words—"history is a by-product of life" and "it will be written whether we participate in the process or not"— were still ringing in my ears when I sat down with my sister. History and storytelling were the focus of our conversation.

My recent interest in my family history and my sister's past exploration of the story of a particular ancestor led us on a search for our link to said ancestor. Using various online resources, we were able to piece together how we were related to a woman who exemplified resilience. That's a topic for a future post, but I was left with the abiding conviction that stories are essential to our sense of self.

Moreover, stories connect us to our past. They entertain, educate and inspire us. They add to a body of stories about the past and thereby make our collective history more complete. They provide examples of character traits worth emulating, such as grit and grace. As Stephen King wrote in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, "the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven."

The data of my ancestors—such as when and where they were born, whom they married, whom they parented, when and where they died—are interesting, but what's really a joy to discover is a story, especially one that reflects their character. Hearing a tale that describes a challenge and the overcoming of that challenge reminds me that I, too, can do hard things.

As Mike Jones wrote in "The Storyteller,"

A story well told can lift up your hearts

And help you forget all your sorrows

It can give you the strength and the courage to stand

And face all your troubles tomorrow.

He continued,

My stories are ageless, they never grow old

With each telling they are born anew

And when my story is ended, I’ll still be alive

In the tales that I’ve given to you.

Every story we tell is a gift from the past to both the present and the future.