Inspired by Madeleine L'Engle's resolve, I discovered why "storyteller," not writer or teacher, is who I truly am — and what that means.

I am more and more disturbed by the parallels I see between what I "imagined" and what plays out on the streets of this country (and in those headlines that bother to report it).

At the same time, I am awed by the power of the stories we free to tell themselves through us, and I am increasingly convinced that it's our stories, the voices that express them and the wisdom and action that derive from them that will change the world.