Life Stories

Stories of our Lives January 25 2010


Once upon a time….we were born….

We all have stories of this life –

What happened, how we felt, and what it meant.

We’ve framed our story and retold it.

It has a shape -- a beginning and a middle.

We know it well.

But is it real? What does it mean?

How much of what we tell comes from the working of

Selective memory or from the midair energy of words in flight

From us to the next person to the next?

How much – our own fiction plot -- stems solely from imagination?

Each time that we confront a script for

How our life may reach its end –

The illness, accident, or surgery

That our body may well not survive –

We glimpse the other lives we also live

In spirit and in soul, in love and hope and faith.

Today, I accompany in spirit those around me facing their mortality,

And feel my sadness at their struggle,

And my joy from loving them while in this life.



Reflection

This seems to be a week for distressing news. A death, three new cancer diagnoses, two imminent surgeries --- all among family and close friends -- and the disastrous earthquake in Haiti that has made thousands suffer so deeply. It’s easy to feel beleaguered, buried in dark storms of sorrow. My first reaction is to resonate with the sadness and worry of all these people, to feel weighted down, to feel as though threats lurk everywhere. Indeed, that is one possible way to see the world and experience life. It’s real.

Quantum theory posits that at any given time there are multiple scenarios being lived by the same people – each one different from the other. In essence, we can jump from one to the other, in a flash. Certainly, we can jump from one shade of emotion to another, in a flash, and that changes the whole resonance of what we are thinking and feeling at a single moment – if we don’t get fixated on the idea that has entered our minds.

As I’m writing, I feel worried about a dear one who’s traveling, and from whom I have not gotten word of safe arrival. I can get pretty worked up about it! I’m actually inclined to get worked up about it. I’ve been here before, with others. Almost always, when they finally show up or get in touch, they’ve had an ordinary garden-variety delay – no big deal. Meantime, I’ve created a horrible scenario in my head, fabricated out of nothing. I’ve lived that scenario and suffered it. It’s felt very real. My body has poured forth its stress hormones, and activated its “fight or flight” response --all because of a story I’ve made up – all because of my fear of letting go into the moment and trusting positive outcomes.

So I’m sitting here processing the bad news of this past week, and trying to shift the energy of my chosen worry of the moment. I’m thinking about how much of our day to day life is truly a story – a creation of our imagination. I’m putting myself in a different space, in one of the many other possible concurrent stories I could choose – a more positive, pleasant one. My body experiences it as real, just as it does the horror story scenario. But the amount of stress is oh so much lower. I can even choose a scenario filled with light, love, and joy, and focus on the wonderful role of love in this lifetime. I think I’ll do that!