Then, Now and Beyond {Are you telling YOUR story?}

I have this belief.  It is a belief that informs and underpins pretty much everything I do.  It goes something like this:

When I imagine Earth, I imagine looking down at Her and seeing a massive patchwork quilt that covers Her.  Each patch on this quilt represents a person.  Not just a person, but their story too.  If a patch is missing then the quilt is incomplete.  I imagine that we are all connected to each other through the thread that holds this quilt together.  No patch is better or more important than the other.  In order for the quilt to succeed, to survive,to thrive, each patch needs to be there and, indeed, has a right to be there.

It is true that some patches are perhaps a bit more old, faded and frayed, whilst others are shiny and new and full of bling. It doesn’t matter, each contributes to the beauty that is the overall quilt and the strength of that quilt is dependent on each piece being there.

What makes the quilt even more spectacular are the stories contained within each patch.  It is my firm belief that in order for the story of humanity to continue these stories need to be told, need to be passed down.  History is important.  It is how we as a species learn, to develop, to grow.  It is also our route to feeling connected, from where we gain our sense of self, both individually and as a whole.

Each patch is important, each story is important.

What is your story?  Are you telling it, documenting it in some way?  Is it too hard? Is your life too busy? I understand.  Do you feel you don’t have a story to tell?  I am here to tell you, my friend, that no matter how boring, how awful or how unremarkable you feel your life is, your story is important, to someone, and to humanity.  Without your story, we are incomplete.  You matter, as does your story, and I am determined to help you realise that.

When my mom passed away, it came as a shock to realise that I didn’t have anything of her life documented.  There were a few photos in a box, a few recipe books she had written in and a china collection, but that was about it.  Her story, her life, her legacy had largely gone.  Of course, I have my memories of her, but the essence of her will almost certainly be lost to my children and grandchildren.  I hated the idea of this.  I felt a massive hole.  We all want to connect, to feel significant in an ever increasing, noisy world.  We don’t want to be forgotten when we are gone.

I am going to start a series on how to tell your story.  I hope that you will play along.  Each week, or maybe more often, I will be posting some way for you to document your story.  It may be a set of short questions for you to answer, perhaps a podcast to create, a simple scrapbook page to do.  Don’t worry, they will be super quick and super easy and mostly free (and who doesn’t love free in this day and age?), but with each week, you will be building and creating your story, your legacy.

It is my hope that through this process you will discover what an amazing person you are, if you don’t know that already, and that you will know that your story is just important as every other story on this patchwork quilt we call humanity.  You count my friend, and I want you to know that.

Tomorrow, I am going to post the first in the series.  Stay tuned.

From my heart to yours,