Stories make a difference-by Mark Ash

I first began to connect with Stories from the Street when I was off work with depression at the beginning of this year. To say this was a difficult time is an understatement, I couldn’t look at a bus without thinking of throwing myself underneath it. It was only a brief thought to the poor sod of a bus driver and how it might ruin his day that sometimes stopped me taking things further.

During this time I read “Stories from the Street” compiled by Steve. The tag line of this book is, “Extraordinary Stories from Ordinary People”, which is very true. What I found most extraordinary was that almost every story I read resonated with my own story. I could identify with the authors because; as well as their honesty; most of their stories were far from finished and not sown up in a neat and tidy fashion. Pain still lingered, quetions remained unanswered and closure was still deferred for some of the writers. With the turn of every page I kept on hearing the same message, sometimes you have to live in the middle of all the crap, but it won’t last forever. That gave me hope, other peoples stories gave me hope.

As a result of this I began writing my own accounts of what was going on in my life through prose and poems as a kind of therapy. In many way that has worked for me as putting pen to paper helps me to untangle thoughts and emotions and I’m even sure that I swear less as I write more.

A few people have said that they like what I write, although 1 or 2 of them rate Andy McNabs, “Bravo 2 Zero” as a modern classic. With this in mind I have been asked by Steve to contribute to this site and I humbly accept.

Please never underestimate the power of your story and don’t fall in to the trap that I once did, that your story has to be one of triumph before it can make  a positive difference to other people.

Mark Ash