The Azalea Storytelling Festival is more than eight months away, but those within the community who enjoy a good story — or would like to tell a few of our own — will have the opportunity this week to hear some great stories, and learn how to tell their own, at Donald Davis’ Summer Story Telling Workshop.

The event will include two performances, one on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the LaGrange College Chapel and one on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. at Bellevue,  followed by the workshop on Friday, and though the registration for the workshop is now closed, there is something to be said for hearing some of the fantastic storytellers that frequently grace LaGrange with their abilities.

Whether it is a performance from local legend Carol Cain or Donald Davis himself, our community thrives on the power of stories, and those stories in turn define who we are as a community. What are we, if not a collection of stories after all?

So, maybe some of those 16 individuals in the workshop will come to us in a few months to share stories of their own at the festival, or maybe they won’t, but we look forward to hearing what stories are yet to blossom from our community.

Some will be sad, some happy and others — perhaps taking a que from Davis — will be silly, but those stories will fold into the cloth of our community, adding new chapters to the story that makes up LaGrange.