Each of us are our own Adam and Eve story

All cultures have creation stories. "In the beginning…" has been told for millennia to billions. All living creatures also have a creation story; they too start with "in the beginning."

Stories of a child's beginning provide a foundation of self, a starting point. These tales of personal origin identify a person as much as their names. Cultural legends define a people; birth stories define a person. Everyone is his or her own Adam and Eve.

When a mother or a father holds their child, whether "home grown or store bought," in their laps and tells of his or her younger years, it positions the child both literally and figuratively in a warm cradle of security. It connects them to a family, to this mom and this dad. More than a lap, it places them on this planet. It makes their universe.

Sadly, for some children these moments of re-creation do not happen. For too many there one to cuddle them. There is no storyteller. The legend is gone, and along with it goes the magic of being held. Both absences wound personal security. It is like an astronaut left adrift in cold, black, intergalactic space. Their earth is not obtainable. It is as if they didn't exist.

When they do exist, stories make us human. Our dreams and imaginations are stories; our lives are stories. When a child is the main character in their own personal creation saga, it empowers them. They are the champions or the heroines who slay the dragon, vanquish the foe, or win the heart of affection. The feeling of being the superhero washes over them. This "Hero With a Thousand Faces," as Joseph Campbell calls it, is them.

When they are held in tender embrace, children become warriors against the serpent, gods of the harvest, and kings and queens of a kingdom. When they hear about their birth and childhood they absorb traits from the tales. They don't just have a role in the story. They are the story.

By listening to their individual beginnings children learn how to write the next chapters of their lives. Security breeds a power for positive action. From their personal creation story each Adam and Eve can visualize building his or her world. They become the architects, the gardeners, the engineers, and the laborers. They will be fathers and mothers of their own human race.

In telling the child's birth story, a parent should start at his or her own beginning. What about the childhood of mom and dad? What is their legend? How did the parents meet? What was it like to be in love?