“The storyteller chooses where the story begins.”
Those words come from my friend Ty Ragan—and I think they are the perfect place to begin Season 3 of The Well Dwellers Podcast.
Because every one of us has a story.
And one of the most powerful things about telling our stories is realizing that we get to choose where they begin.
Maybe your story begins with a diagnosis.
Maybe it begins with a car wreck, a childhood memory, a moment of exclusion, or a moment when somebody finally saw you.
Maybe disability has been part of your story for as long as you can remember.
Or maybe it entered your life unexpectedly and changed everything.
I know something about that.
At fifteen years old, a car wreck changed the trajectory of my life. I became paralyzed and a quadriplegic. For more than thirty years, I have lived my story from a wheelchair.
But my story isn’t simply the story of a car wreck.
It isn’t simply the story of paralysis.
And it isn’t simply the story of disability.
Those things are part of my story—but they don’t get to tell the whole story.
And that’s what I’m hoping Season 3 of The Well Dwellers Podcast will be about:
Stories that matter.
Not simply stories about disabled people, but stories from disabled people.
And beginning in the new year, I want to open The Well Studio to you my listeners.
You don’t have to be a theologian, an advocate, an author, or an expert.
You just have to have a story to tell.
And I’d love to hear that story through three simple questions.
What does the word “disability” mean to you?
Does it describe you?
Does it limit you?
Does it connect you to a community?
What words have helped you describe your experience—and what words haven’t?
Because language matters. The words we use shape how we understand ourselves and how others understand us.
Where do you find dignity?
Where do you discover your sense of worth and personhood?
Where have you experienced belonging?
Who has helped you recognize your value?
And perhaps just as importantly, where has your dignity been denied?
What have those experiences taught you?
And where do you find hope?
Not a hope that ignores injustice or pretends everything is going to be okay.
A deeper hope.
The kind that allows us to look honestly at the world as it is—and still imagine what it could become.
Where do you find hope?
Who gives you hope?
And what kind of future do you hope we can build for disabled people, our families, our communities, the Church, and society?
These are the conversations I want to have in Season 3.
Because I believe there is something powerful that happens when we tell our stories to one another.
As Gary Alan recent shared in a post:
“We are all connected in ways we rarely see. Sometimes a few words from one person give another person permission to listen a little more closely to their life.”1
Maybe your story will do that for someone else.
Maybe it will help someone realize they are not alone.
Maybe it will challenge an assumption they hold.
Maybe it will create belonging.
Maybe it will give somebody hope. Real hope.
And maybe that’s what The Well can become this season—a place where our stories can meet.
So, if you’re listening and thinking, “Maybe I have a story to tell,” I’d love to hear from you.
Send me an email at erikfreiburger@substack.com, and let’s set up a time to meet in the online studio together.
And if you’re not ready to tell your own story, that’s okay too.
Maybe you know someone whose story needs to be heard. Share this invitation with them and I’d love to hear from them.
And if these conversations matter to you, share The Well Dwellers Podcast with someone else, leave a rating or review, and consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the work happening At The Bottom Of The Well.
There is more coming still from The Well—including some new possibilities for community—and I’ll be sharing more about that soon.
But for now, welcome to Season 3.
This season, we’re going to tell some great and amazing stories.
And maybe, along the way, we’ll discover that the stories we thought were only ours…were never ours alone.
Looking forward to when I’ll see you next in The Well.
“The story you often get is not the story you were chasing but it ends up being even better.”
– Anthony Bourdain
Three Weeks Until We Gather at the Well!
The countdown is on and I am getting very excited! In just three weeks, we’ll gather for the beginning of Thy Tender Care in Conversation—an online journey of reading, reflection, and meaningful conversation about disability, faith, and what it means to be human.
