The Direction of Intention

58.

Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Twice in my life, for a few short days, I experienced what it means to live within a narrative shared with my community; we were inside a common, single story, we were the story. The first was after the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. The second was during the days after 9/11.

Once in my life I experienced a community that was always inside a common story, no tragedy was necessary for connectivity and shared experience. Their purpose in their life was to keep the story alive – consciously and intentionally, to live it everyday, to revivify it every year. Without the story there was no life.

Is there a story in your life that carries that much power? Are you in service to a story that matters that much?

All stories are ancient. And, at the same time, all stories are new. Right now, if you really listen to yourself, you’ll find that you are telling yourself a story, and it’s your story of being here – in this world, as you define yourself to be. It is a new story because it is yours. It is also an ancient story, because it is your version of the very same challenges, questions, passages, celebrations and disappointments that all the peoples have faced who have walked on this planet before you. It is your turn.

The story of an individual makes no sense unless it is plugged into a cohesive communal narrative. Where do you fit? Why do you and your actions matter?

Stories are like maps for navigating life. Because we are always story telling, every minute of every day, people quite naturally convey their deepest truths through their stories and their myths. These stories and myths – when alive – enable us to enter into a rich meaningful relationship with our circumstance, a dynamic conversation with the powers of the universe.

The story of a community makes no sense unless it is plugged into a cohesive universal narrative. Where do we fit? Why do we matter (I call this “deep story”)?

When stories are not alive we consume them. They serve a momentary identity function and then go back in the mail. Deep narrative requires delayed gratification. It is like a fine wine that opens slowly over time. The point is not in telling a new story but in the known, the oft told story, hearing it again and again and again it becomes like your heartbeat.

What does it mean, what does it feel like to live inside a greater common story, to tell a story that also ‘tells’ you? What stories do you repeat over and over again? Are they deep story? Communal story? Or, is it the story that only you experience? What story are you telling yourself again and again and again?

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