Life is a story. Each one of us has a different perspective, a different story. We make it up as we go.
Sometimes it flows, sometimes not. Sometimes it rings true, sometimes not. Sometimes it is enthralling, scary, predictable, or dull. Sometimes it is a dream come true? Sometimes you have to pinch yourself. It is so amazing that you have to accept that you live a charmed and blessed life; and sometimes you forget.
Without our stories, the world is about as interesting as a technical manual on a subject you know nothing about.
We learn through stories. Even hard facts must be transformed into metaphors, images, and stories for us to remember them. Children love stories because that’s how they learn to be in the world. We all love stories because of the new possibilities they present to us.
There are two kinds of stories: stories that limit us, and stories that expand the boundaries of what we imagine is possible. Possibilities must be imagined before they can be realized. Possibilities come to us first as stories. Limitations are negative possibilities, and are imagined in the same way.
A story that bursts through the limits of what was once imagined can liberate us from whatever story we may have been telling ourselves. “I can’t.” “I am too this or that.” “I always seem to mess it up.” “The world is too this or that.” “Too many people are suffering. I will only make it worse.” “People are unkind.” “Someone will rescue me.” “I am too young.” “Too old.” “Too smart.” “Too dumb.” You are whatever you say you are. You can be the exception to whatever it is you imagined others may have said about you.
A young woman in Kenya who saved scores of girls from genital mutilation because she herself had been mutilated. A dock-worker in Poland who catalyzed the downfall of the communist regime. A Burmese woman, Aung San Suu Kyi, who continues to tell a story about democracy and self-determination for the people of Burma. Under house arrest for decades, she continues to inspire the world. How many examples are there of people who changed the lives of others. They did so by creating a story that was bigger than any of the limitations that might have consumed them.
The best healers and teachers teach us stories about what is possible. In the history of all people are stories about taming demons and monsters and making them into allies; and stories about transforming impossible tasks and accomplishing them. We make meaning through stories.
What story are you telling yourself, which when you change it now, changes everything about what is possible for yourself and for the world.
Do stories change hard facts? You bet they do! Is there still work to do? In Haiti, Pakistan, Iraq, and in your own life? Of course.
The question is simple. What stories lead you to say, “Yes, I can” so that you are empowered to do that necessary work of transforming your life and the life of the world?
