These are photos of me. Photos that you’d think would pre-date the stories that had, until not so long ago, come to “shape” and “define” me. But, of course, we’re launched into a world of stories, limitations, and expectations upon our very entry into this life, and so it’s no wonder that even as we reach an age where awareness of these stories becomes clear it can still be more than a little challenging to understand them, to let them go, to choose new ones.
In addition to the stories we’re born into, the lives that unfold before us offer us myriad opportunities to create new ones, to fondle them and become attached to them, even years after they’ve stopped serving us (if they ever did). Slights from others become statements etched in concrete about our worth & our abilities. Successes we have begin to sour as we sense them binding us to a singular path, a safe path, when our deepest desires call for us to roam.
Our histories stretch both backward and forward, and turn into the only course we can chart ahead, because it’s all we’ve ever known. Our story stays our story, even as we feel stale, stuck, and spent.
But we don’t have to.
It matters not whether we accepted our stories from others, wearing them like hand me downs, long ago outstretched and ill-fitting, or we created them ourselves just yesterday, the same holds true for all of them; if they do not serve us we can choose to let them go.
I know from my own experience how much my own stories were holding me back. On the surface they seemed inescapable, and perhaps I didn’t want to escape them. Who wants to leave behind the comforts of familiarity, even as that comfort turns to conformity and conformity to restraint? No, to choose to set down old stories and walk away from them is an act of courage. And it’s an act you don’t have to do alone.
I created the Storyteller e-course because I could see that in each of the photos I’ve taken, from the time I was a child armed with a pink mini-mouse camera to today never straying far from my iphone and trusty camera apps, existed a world of subtext, a jumble of assumptions, and a lens through which I was both capturing & limiting my experience.
By letting the stories choose themselves I was at their mercy for how I engaged with my life. By owning them, and selecting them from the infinite options available to me, I have been able to once again feel whole and in harmony with my journey.
I no longer feel held hostage by ideas that are outdated and fearful. Instead I am grateful for this unfolding mystery, and proud to call my journey my own.
Storyteller starts on the 14th of this month, we already have a beautiful group signed up, and I’d love it if you wanted to join us.