I was listening to a friend tell me a number of stories when all the sudden, she switched her language into present tense. I’m going to guess that she wasn’t even aware of this, but it drew me in all the more. I thought, “Oh, she wants me even more alongside her right here,” and through that shift in her language, I was.
I was grateful to be invited.
This experience made me want to pay attention for these kinds of moments — these sudden shifts into present tense, particularly while someone is sharing a story that happened in the past.
This is one of the myriad of ways that we can accompany each other. A story, whether funny, meaningful, tragic, or traumatic, slows down, and in the present tense, our hearer is with us. And in a very real way, this presence and this invitation to witness the story, changes the story. It expands it. It can reframe it or even transform it.
In my life and in my work, I’m going to be listening for this. And in my own telling of stories, I may choose to use it myself.
Smuggling Grace 