I sat in my car, in the parking lot of my kids’ school, for nearly half an hour this morning before I was able to bring myself to continue on to the office. The history-making moment of this election did not turn out as I had expected, and—feeling at a loss myself—I wasn’t sure what I could or should say to my staff.

But the medium is the message and at JWA, our medium is stories. Today we need those stories more than ever, because stories connect us to one another; they comfort us; they inspire us. At JWA’s weekly staff meeting today, we set aside the intended agenda and instead, we each shared the story of a woman whom we are turning to for courage and encouragement today.

Stories will heal us—individually and as a nation. So today, and in the coming days, reach out to someone and share a story or engage in conversation. We offer the following questions as conversation starters. If you’d like to add your voice to something larger, please consider recording the conversation as a voice memo on your phone, and share it with JWA.

JWA post-election conversation starters:

Thank you for sharing your stories and yourself. And if you feel the power of these stories, please consider supporting JWA.