Stories to Warm Your Heart
This book is a series of writings put together to help shape all those (both the young and not so young) who are looking for answers to life's questions and guidance on how to live meaningful lives. I have always loved storytelling, and the lessons that so often go with them. From an early age I developed the love of reading at home and in school. One of the books I remember hearing my mother reading to us was A Basket of Flowers which spoke so powerfully and deeply about the need for forgiveness even when we have been so badly and unfairly treated. I enjoyed listening to Kwaku Ananse stories and the antics and lessons from the characters in them, especially Kwaku Ananse, Ntikuma and Okxnxre Yaa. The Readers Digest was also a staple diet at home and I loved reading all those real life stories every month.
I adopted storytelling as part of the informal interactions at home with our children when they were very young, and I did not fail to notice that they enjoyed the stories and the lessons so much. On one occasion I even invited my friend and author, Michael Ofori-Mankata, formerly of the United Nations School in New York, home and he started telling Ghanaian folkloric stories to the children. The effect was so electrifying that when it was time for him to leave, the children tried to delay him for some time.
This is the reason why, as a lay preacher and speaker, I have always made it a point to start and end my presentations with stories. That style has always left an indelible impression on my audiences, judging from the feedback received on each occasion. Storytelling has the advantage of getting the
audience to remember the lessons and key points one wants
to send across.
It was in that context that I started sharing some lessons and experiences on Facebook. My intention was not to write a book. This book, and the two others that are being released at about the same time, has come about as an accident, if one should put it that way. What happened was this. I kept receiving comments and requests from my readers that I should compile my writings into a book for posterity. I must say that I had been receiving such calls in the past, in other contexts, especially in relation to my sermons. Somehow, I always managed to brush aside these calls. What finally made me change my mind was when a young man by name Yaw Tenkorang called me on telephone one day, after an initial mail to me, and followed up with a personal visit to me at home. His message was simple and direct. "I have been following you on Facebook," he said, "and you write so well and put across your messages so beautifully, that you owe it to posterity to translate these into a book. That book would be a permanent record of your teachings which your grandchildren and many others
will come to cherish long after you are gone." That was a turning point for me, as it confirmed what many others had been trying to persuade me to do over the years, across disciplines.
This is how come this volume, Stories to Warm Your Heart, has seen the light of day. I must point out though, not all the writings in this book are stories, properly so called.
Some are observations from the school of life. They all fit into the pattern chosen, nevertheless. It is my expectation that the reader will be educated, informed and enlivened by the narratives in this volume, and that out of this inspiration will come the desire for us all to pay attention to the things that matter in life. May this book be a blessing to everyone who reads it.
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