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Story, The Bigger Picture

Why all this talk about ‘story’ anyway? 
Actually, ‘changing the story’ is a buzzword these past years. We hear the call for a ‘new story’ from many places; from the Occupy movement to climate change activists, from indigenous peoples standing strong in the face of colonial policies, from our teachers and grassroots leaders everywhere.  We begin to understand that when we change our story, the way we see and interact with the world, everything changes. Changing our story changes the world’s story.

Many leaders and teachers have counseled us that the future is created when we make ‘a new story’.  Psychology tells us, change one piece of a system and, of necessity, the whole system changes.  Thanks to grassroots movements we see the cultural story being changed all around us.  Our times might best be described as the era of the old paradigm loosening its hold while the new emerges.

The message is inescapable.

But, we ask, what can I, personally, DO in the face of an all-pervasive paradigm?  We charge up our activism and take to the streets. We sign petitions, write letters, make phone calls, visit lawmakers depending on our skills and inclination.  We do research or make impassioned speeches.  We talk to our friends and figure out how to talk to those who don’t agree with us.

And we just might turn to the ancient Hermetic adage: “As above, so below” and its modern corollary, “As without, so within”.  This is a traditional description of what today is referred to as the microcosm reflecting the macrocosm.  While we do the work of change out there in the world, we augment it with our inner work.

But, as any of us who have tried to change can attest, ingrained habits die hard.  We can court change as though it were a lover, but until we do our internal work, we continually find ourselves falling back into the old ways, the well worn patterns of thinking, feeling, speaking and acting.  So what can we do?  How do we foster transformation within and without and move forward?

I have asked many people these questions during my years of counseling, mentoring and teaching.  Some of us think we can only change when our back is to the wall.  We have to hit that proverbial bottom of the pit with no possibility of escape before we take a new path.

Others of us can make a decision, create an intention and keep it before us, feeding it and making the fulfillment of it the focus of our attention.  This is hard work and incredibly rewarding.  We learn that we can come through for ourselves in the most meaningful of ways.

Sometimes we find that we are just plain bored living out the same old same old.  And change occurs, just like that.  As though someone turned off, or on, a switch in our personalities.  And the old ways fall away.  Like a snake growing a new skin, we move forward in our lives, nurturing our world.

And so, we gather our allies, those who we can count on to support us.  We gather our self-care techniques and the expressions of our own growth that we have watched over the years. We remember who we are and turn to those who can remind us when we forget. We forgive ourselves when we forget.  We speak our truth, even when it is hard.  We remember gratitude for each and every time we remember who we are growing into. 



Resilience

The wild beating heart
stands present and at
the ready
when life calls.

Showered in golden light
it illumines all.  And yet
if we travel the distance
there exists
an edge.
And at that edge, at that
exact place where
light meets dark, that is
the home of excitement.

Growth twines through our lives
in strength,
in mystery.  We finite humans,
we never know
cannot know,
when we open that door
to change, what
we will find.  But the
adventure of stepping forth
in wonder
begs the tantalizing
question we name
Beauty.

She calls to us once.
And again, until
tugging at my heart,
I jump.

And, once more
find that I
can

fly.

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