What's your story?

What if you were to ponder the question:  What is the story I am telling myself about my life?  The stories that we tell ourselves reflect the meaning we give to circumstances, challenges and everything that is our life.  Stories define us and good or bad- we all have them (click here).

Where does your story start?  How honest are you about the story you are telling yourself about your life?  A collegue often shares that "Humans have an infinite capacity for self-deception."  We can all be shortsighted on our weaknesses.  On the flip side of that, I've also heard the challenge, "Would you be friends with someone who talked to you the way you criticize yourself?"  Ouch- there's some truth to that one, too.

To know someone well is to know their story—the experiences that have shaped a person, the celebrations and trials they have weathered.  When we want someone to know us, we share stories of our childhoods, our families, our school years, our first loves, our political views, and so on.  I know my friends' stories, and they know mine.  Because of this, we give each other grace abundant when needed.  My friends also give wine, but I digress.

It's easy to harshly judge those whose stories we don't know.  A cranky looking woman in a huge SUV cut me off in traffic yesterday.  I really wanted to be irritated, and at first I was.  Then, I remembered this video, and the fact that I don't know that woman's story. I tried to tell myself that maybe she is stressed about her job. Maybe someone broke her heart. Maybe she's worried about how to pay for gas for that massive Hummer she was driving!   Although I wanted to pull up next to her, palms up, with a "WTH?" look at the next stop light, I didn't.  I would like to say I sat there and prayed for her instead, but I'm not Mother Teresa.  I politely sat and watched as she extended her long slender middle finger in my general direction and I decided that she must be trying to tell me that she needs a manicure.  That kind of stress can push anyone over the edge.  (Still a work in progress here...)

Our stories have power, energy, and carry the essence of our lives.  They involve our yesterdays, our todays and hopes for our tomorrows.  They encompass our wounds and shape our personalities.  My story started decades ago in a small farm town with a big family...  It includes love, and change, and failure, and appreciation.  My story is uniquely mine.  What's your story?

In Bliss & Grace, Shugie

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

—John Barth