Our Stories
Our ‘stories’…those unseen scripts that form the backbone of our lives. Maybe even some of the front bones too. Moriarty might even say our ribs are turned in on us in an effort to keep our stories in.
Our very biology is set up to hold us in and the world out there, out.
Stories and Spirituality
I could argue, spiritual practice is nothing more than learning how to let go of our personal stories. Buddhists certainly are all about that non-attachment vibe. Christianity too might be a call to abandon oneself and turn towards the central story of Christ and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Talking of spiritual practices, what about, getting out of bed, as the most potent spiritual practice of them all? We talk about a life ‘well lived’, but surely it’s enough to just have lived. Certainly, a longish life, of any hue, will provide enough sun and enough moonlight to reveal the interconnectedness of all our stories.
Your First Love (Story)
Losing your first love might be a good example of a story that organically morphs given enough time…those unbearable teenage feelings of loss once felt are somehow rendered in fondness as we age and look back.
Given enough time and enough insight, we may find a vantage point in which it is comfortable enough to look back at all our stories, if not always with fondness, then at least with reverence.
Hopefully, when we climb our own personal Machu Picchu, that temple of heavenly worship, we can look out from rarefied heights and see our stories, not cast adrift and languishing unloved on the valley floor, but actually well tended to by amazon rivers and streams running from the very same mountains that we’re looking out from.
Our Darkest Stories
As much as I’d want to disown and disavow myself of my story of being sexually exploited as a child (by a sports coach entrusted with my care), I’ve been lucky enough, to live long enough, to get to a point where I can tenderly pick that story back up and treat it with the respect that it needs.
Just as the gardener might take care of a beautiful rose and over time appreciate the thorns as well as the flower, I’ve learned to love the defensive parts of my own nature as well as my shiny, happy jokey side.
Conscious Stories
So, we all have our stories, and we recognise they are key to how we show up in the world but we also might recognise that we are much more than our stories.
The evolution of language, metaphors and eventually stories may have been the seed from which consciousness itself was born.
Whole swathes of religious and spiritual teachings caution us to move away from our stories.
Modern Stories
The modern world wants to impose a story or stories on you - who you are and how you're allowed to show up in the world as dictated by society and its cultural norms. When and if you can label yourself successful or smart or even interesting.
Cohesive Stories
Society at large is losing a cohesive story. The story that unites us as a people. My parent’s generation had their Royal Familly and stories of Empire, the Blitz and remembrance day parades to gel around.
Today, we’ve lost our collective story. Some people believe in climate change, while others don’t. Some people here in the UK want hard Brexit while others proclaim Je suis European.
Stories might just be more important now than ever.
Stories we tell ourselves and stories we tell each other.
How well do you know your own story and which parts would you care to share?
Manos
“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” G.K. Chesterton