The Kindness of Telling the Truth About Your Life
Sign Up for Faye Lane’s Story Spirals During North Texas Kindness Week
By Faye Lane
At a recent Story Spiral, someone began telling a story, and the room grew very still. I could feel everyone listening with their whole hearts. When the story ended, no one rushed to offer advice. Instead, we sat together in a deep, heartfelt silence.
That space for silence is intentional. I’ve designed the Story Spiral format to discourage feedback and crosstalk, even when they are kind and well-intended. My hope is to create a space where people feel safe enough to tell deeply personal stories—even the ones we think we couldn’t possibly tell.
Our community understood that we had been trusted with something precious, and that the kindest thing we could do was simply hold it.
Telling a true personal story can feel like handing someone your heart and hoping they won’t drop it. I know that feeling. Even after years of telling stories, I still have moments when I wonder: Will they understand? Will they judge me? Will they see me differently?
And then I look around the circle.
Someone is nodding. Someone is wiping away a tear. Someone is laughing with the particular relief that comes from recognizing a piece of their own life in somebody else’s. A person who thought, This has only happened to me, discovers that they are not alone.
That is one reason I believe storytelling is an act of kindness. When we tell the truth about our lives, we give another person something more generous than a polished account of how well everything turned out. We give them a glimpse of what it means to be human.
The story doesn’t have to be dramatic. It might be about the day someone welcomed you when you felt out of place. It might be about a mistake you made, a joy you almost missed, or an ordinary kindness you still remember years later. Sometimes a small story gives someone else permission to say, “Me too.”
Listening is its own act of kindness. Receiving a story without interrupting, correcting, comparing or trying to fix it sounds simple until you notice how often you want to jump in with an answer. But a person’s story is not a problem placed in our hands to solve. It is a life they are trusting us to hear.
Every gathering reminds me of something I need to remember when I leave the circle: everyone I meet is in the middle of a story I do not know.
The person ahead of me in line may be carrying grief. The colleague who seems distracted may be finding their way through a hard season. The stranger who smiles at me may have worked very hard to find that smile. I cannot know the whole story from a single encounter. Remembering that makes me want to meet people with more patience and tenderness.
I felt this in Japan, too, when people from different cultures and languages came together for a Story Spiral. The details of our lives differed, but the hopes beneath our stories felt familiar. We wanted to belong. We wanted to be understood. We wanted someone to care. That experience brought home for me how far a story can travel when someone is willing to listen.
As North Texas Kindness Week approaches, I hope we will make room for this quieter form of kindness alongside the visible acts of service and generosity. Tell someone about a moment that changed you. Ask a question that invites more than a quick answer. When someone trusts you with the truth, give them your attention.
That is how Dallas grows kinder: one honest exchange at a time. A story shared over coffee. A neighbor heard without judgment. A room of strangers becoming people who know something real about one another.
Join me on Nov. [date] and Nov. [date] at Thanks-Giving Square for two opportunities to experience a Story Spiral. You can share a true personal story, listen to someone else’s, or simply come and see what happens when we give one another the gift of our attention. I would love to see you in the circle.
Because space is limited, you need to register ahead of time. Sign Up Here
Faye Lane is Artist-in-Residence and Chief Inspiration Officer at Thanks-Giving Square.