All of us require a way to tell the story of our own life. To remove that which oppresses us and to hold aloft our goals and dreams, those dreams which belong only to us, and those which we will strive to make a reality.
In creating and telling your own story, you are able to find the soft place from which you can recognise a growing confidence in your own sense of authority over your life. Your story becomes grounded not just in the roles you play but in the very centre of who you are. In aligning your way of being with your own personal integrity you begin to see your life as a journey in which you your heart unfolds to experience yourself in all your truth.
All of us require a way to tell the story of our own life. To remove that which oppresses us and to hold aloft our goals and dreams, those dreams which belong only to us, and those which we will strive to make a reality.
In creating and telling your own story, you are able to find the soft place from which you can recognise a growing confidence in your own sense of authority over your life. Your story becomes grounded not just in the roles you play but in the very centre of who you are. In aligning your way of being with your own personal integrity you begin to see your life as a journey in which you your heart unfolds to experience yourself in all your truth.
Why Stories?
Stories make the world go round. Stories teach us, and they help us learn who we are, and who we want to be. Stories connect us with each other, and stories invite us into the hearts and souls of those around us. But it’s more than just the story.
What becomes important is the exploration, the finding and the telling. Things change when you tell your story. You may find parts that are funny, or emotional, sad or scary, and you will definitely will find something that is friends, shop keepers, neighbours, your community. Tell your own story.
Your Story
If I try to describe my ideas and thoughts about why I want to help you to find your story, it doesn’t sound so great. I get all fumbly and weird, but I think it’s about taking the story telling back. Someone once told me that one of the ways to know your calling is when you can’t name it, but it doesn’t matter too much, because you feel it. Well, it’s like that, I can feel this and I know that it is essential.
A while ago I read that “A child today is born into a home where the television is on an average of over 7 hours a day. For the first time in human history, most of the stories about people, life and values are told not by parents, schools, churches or others in the community who have something to tell, but by distant conglomerates that have something to sell”. This statement was made about the average American family but I don’t think we are that far off a similar reality here in Australia. (I read this in a book called “Invisible Crisis: what conglomerate control of media means for America and the world” written by George Gerbner).
Gerbner also says: “The roles we grow into and the way others see us are no longer homemade, handcrafted, community inspired. They are products of a complex and integrated and globalised manufacturing and marketing system”.
I found this particularly interesting in considering the way in which we share (or don’t share) ourselves in the world. It is true that is not our families and community telling us the stories any more, it is the people who want to sell us something. So much of what we hear these days is from people who want to sell us something, people who want us to know their ‘brand’. This is unfortunately become how we learn about things, how we know about the world around us.
Think for just a moment about difference demise of authentic freedom of expression in the face of the controlling media giants, and the cultural effect of overwhelming and often thoughtless consumerism. And then think about what you already understand (either intellectually or intuitively) about the importance of knowing our own stories, and sharing them with each other, and the significance of our oral histories. Does one of these bring a stirring in your heart more than the other? It does for me.
What I am inspired by and truly committed to doing, is bringing the day to day storytelling back to our heart, our centre. It can be hard, our lives are so busy and so full of ‘stuff’ that we often don’t get time to be quiet and listen; but it’s not impossible.
The difference here is that I want you to know your own story and then whatever way suits you, you can share that. These are the stories I want to learn from, these are the stories I want to entertain me. The stories from people just like you and I, stories I can relate to. The stories that build the foundation of who we really are, not who someone or something external tells us we ought to be.
Building Your Story
This is a process of finding and developing your story. The final outcome of this may be a written document or an audio recording. Stories can be stories of creation – the creation of who you are or how you came to be where you are. Developing your story, or that of your family gives the opportunity to share what is important to you and invites the reader / listener into your world. Not only does your story preserve your history, and your story is sacred, capturing it establishes the sacred order of your being.
Preview my book.
Miles of Memories compiles stories from the older generation living in a small town in Western Queensland. This book is for everyone who loves stories. It is a container in which we record the histories of the elders in the small community and we hold them together, for our future. The stories that have been shared in this book connect us to one another. Even though they may not be our own, many elicit powerful emotional responses in us. Immersed in the stories of our community, we can see the world through someone else’s eyes. We can know what it’s like to ride a racehorse on a cold morning, to skin a kangaroo, to live in a far off land, or to be a runaway bride. Sharing our stories enables us to connect and empathise with each other, we can know parts of our community that may have gone unnoticed.
By sharing our stories we are able to deepen our lives together.
This collection of stories reflects on the joys and sadness’ of a lives that have been, and continue to be lived with grace, wisdom, respect and dignity.
