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Archive Number 989 | ||
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Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 12:16:09 -0500
Hi Diane and everyone, I've been rolling this 'transformation' thing around in my mind since it's been posted and Diane, your comments at the end of your post jogged my thoughts more. I find the stories that touch me the most are personal stories, and I hear those every day as a therapist working with individuals and groups. Years ago when I first began to learn chants, I got it into my head that I would collect them and write them all down, somehow get the tune for the chant and get that onto music tablature as well. In a short time I learned how chants shift and change and can have different words and a different tune as well. Trying to nail them down became an impossible task and I surrendured and came to be able to enjoy them as they were as an oral tradition. Some time ago, I was helping a friend's daughter paint her bedroom. It was the first time she'd ever painted and I offered to help. My friend didn't want to take part in the painting, but came in periodically to chat with us. Several months later, my friend and I were talking. She shared how much she'd learned from watching me while I was painting. How she always was the kind of person that didn't like getting 'messy' and so held herself back from doing many things that she knew she would have enjoyed doing. She told me how she noticed that I had on old jeans that were paint spattered and how I would just absent-mindedly wipe my hands on the front of my pants as I worked and how much that impacted her... to the point where she dug out some old clothes and made those her 'messy' clothes and began experimenting with being more messy in her life. That story impacted me because I realized how much people really do observe each other and learn from each other... at times when we least expect we are being observed. So even when I think people don't notice me or what I'm doing, they are observing me and may be learning something important for themselves. I think the special stories are the ones that touch us deeply, and we never know how or when or where that's going to happen. With an oral tradition such as storytelling, there is so much richness in the energy, setting, tone, awarenesses that comes during the telling, just before and afterward. Having the right story for the moment could be as simple as a Buddhist proverb or a Dr. Seuss rhyme... or a memory from childhood or an experience from last week. I am transformed when I have a different awareness then I've had before... and when I can integrate that into my life and do things differently and grow. My 2=A2 worth... Kathe Royal Oak, MI >Those are the >stories I seek as I continue to grow and discover who I am and what I was >put on this earth to do. I figure the process will continue til I draw my >last breath, which is why I feel so driven to discover those special >stories. So many stories, so little time! | ||