Death is a strange and multifaceted experience.
Over the last few years I have experienced this life changing transition in many forms. Whether it was the death of family members, the death of friendships or the death of parts of my identity, each time I was left changed forever. Transformed by the gift of insight, love and surrender to forces beyond my human control.
This week however, like a bolt from the blue, I was told that friends of mine had lost their young daughter to cancer.
Have you ever had a time when nothing seems to make sense anymore?
A period when the ‘normal’ activities of your daily life suddenly feel strange and out of place?
When the people you used to enjoy being around begin to get on your nerves?
Work you used to love stops being fulfilling?
You become bored with things that used to excite you whether that’s food, TV, sex, alcohol etc…?
You feel discombobulated (love this word) and can’t seem to keep your focus?
Recognize this?
GOOD!
There have always been stories that tell us where we came from and why we are here. They differ in shape, size, colour and character, yet at the end of each tale there always seems to be a call back into life’s biggest secret.
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘being in the world but not of it’? This has been rolling through my head increasingly over the last few weeks as I have moved from one seemingly tumultuous political environment to another. Whether the politics being played out are personal, organisational or national doesn’t really matter. It’s all made of the same messy human narratives that have the potential to suck us into their vortex of fear of the unknown! The process of breaking down in order to eventually breakthrough is one that few of us are ‘good at’. Indeed, I would challenge whether anyone living through times of intense chaos and transformation gets ‘good at the process’ when they are in the middle of it!
One of the biggest tests we will encounter in our busy lives on this planet is that of ‘the blank space’.
Huh? You may ask.
The blank space is one of the hardest to find and yet it’s there all the time. Waiting.
The blank space is called by many names, none of which recognize it’s inherent value to the human soul. Boredom, depression, lethargy, confusion, fatigue, stagnancy… all alchemical states of transformation.
A storyhack that will change your life
I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that drama seems to be on the increase these days. And I don’t mean the sort of drama that we act or watch in theatres.
No…. I mean the drama that pervades our daily lives in the form of stress, anxiety and worry.
I believe that we all come into this world with an inner spark that we carry across universes and lifetimes. It is this inner light that guides us when we are lost. One of the core purposes of our human lives is to remember and embody our spark of personal genius, pursuing its trail without distraction as we grow and evolve. And yes, I believe that we all have the ability to embody genius.
Without listening to our spark, we become listless and stagnant. Depression and lethargy are by-products of shutting down its urges. When we forget to listen to its voice, we forget who we are. In a way, we start to die a little bit every day. We try and numb ourselves to the pain of our forgetting this fundamental part of our spirit.
Extract from Tough Bliss: Restorying Life
I believe that we all have within us ‘genius’ that is waiting to be remembered.
WITH ROBIN BOAST
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking.
Season 3 – US
Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
11 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT WINTER1. Silence is actually really loud2. The cold, bare land is a mirror for our stories3. Cosiness is the ultimate luxury4. Real fires remind us of our ancient past5. Family shows us where we are in our evolution6. Peace really can only be found within7. Adventure can be found in the smallest of places8. Awe and wonder reconnect us9. Magic is real10. Gratitude is the ultimate gift11. Death is really just a beginning
I believe that we all come into this world with an original spark that we carry across lifetimes. It is this inner light that guides us when we are lost. One of the core purposes of our lives is to activate and embody our spark of unique personal genius, pursuing its trail without distraction as we grow and evolve. And yes, I believe that we all have the ability to embody original genius.
Extract from Tough Bliss: Restorying Life
In our modern age of individuality, you would think that it would be easy for each of us to feel truly special, unique and full of purpose. Yet in my experience, large numbers of our 7 billion strong human community actually view their lives as the opposite to this. At best, many of us live with the constant pressure of assimilation into the dominant social story, whether we agree with it or not. At worst, we gradually lose our sense of self worth and personal purpose, sacrificing our dreams into the ocean of a meaningless and mediocre existence.
This weekend was rainy. It was one of those early-winter days in the UK where the skies are a deep unending grey. The air was moist with what the English call ‘mizzle’; a misting rain that soaks you to the bone in a matter of minutes. Just as I was about to enter into another English habit of moaning about the weather, my eye caught a picture stuck to our fridge. It was an image of a six-year-old me and my two younger sisters, sat at our Grandparent’s table on a sundrenched Colorado summer day. The picture had been taken a three months before we had moved to England.
WITH ROWAN CONWAY
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Season 3 – US
We move from WE to ‘US’ – Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
I love it when the ripple effects of stories spread out, inviting authenticity, vulnerability and raw human beauty. Sparked by our last Wisdom Story, I share another guest post from a deep and wonderful soul, Lorna Howarth. Lorna and I have known each other for little over a year and in that short space of time have empowered and encouraged the other to show up and stand up in the world, sharing our stories and giving others permission to do the same. Lorna is the Co-Founder of The Write Factor and an amazing soulistic adventurer.
As the famous John Muir quote says “the mountains called” and this week, I ran home into their arms.
Every so often I come across a story that stops me dead in my tracks.
A memory so raw and real that it brings tears to my eyes and makes me breathe deeply into the beautiful paradox of our human lives. This Wisdom Story is just such a sharing. I am honoured to offer this out to you all with the author’s permission as an expression of the joy and light that can be found in the darkness. May it remind you of the deeper purpose hidden in our fear. May you breathe in the sweet freedom that waits when we can restory our human darkness into our human light.
WITH DANIEL SPAYNE
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Season 3 – US
We move from WE to ‘US’ – Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
This week I have been very quiet which is unusual for me.
In the quiet, I have been listening.
My dreams have been dark of late, yet the imagery I dance with in my sleep is not mine alone. How could it be? When we live in an inherently interconnected world where we are each a puzzle piece of the whole picture.
WITH JEFF FIREWALKER SCHMITT
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Season 3 – US
We move from WE to ‘US’ – Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
This has been a Tough Bliss year for me. Perhaps it was always going to be, having released a book by that very title this January! I have often reflected that perhaps I should be more careful of what I wish for. Yet these tough times always pass and often lead through to new epiphanies, relationships, opportunities and grace if we have the courage to ride their waves.
WITH BARBARA SAVAGE
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Season 3 – US
We move from WE to ‘US’ – Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
Reflections of Grace
- It is more often quiet than loud
- It speaks the language of the heart
- It dances in light and dark
- It connects every living and dying thing
- It is the force behind miracles
- She / he appears in many guises
- It is there at our beginning and our ending
- It seduces us into our greatest adventures
- It allows us to let go and to let in
- It unifies and separates
- Grace is a gift given through the eyes, the breath, the kiss
- You are its holy longing
- It is what makes you … you
When we were kids, many of us would have heard the story of the genie that lived in a magic lamp and would appear when you rubbed it to grant you three wishes. Few of us however, would have believed the truth hidden within the metaphor of this ‘fairy-tale’.
Every story has a grain of truth within it, and yet it is partial.
WITH DR JUDE CURRIVAN AND GILES HUTCHINS
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Season 3 – US
We move from WE to ‘US’ – Thought leaders, visionaries and elders from across the world share with us their prophesies and inspiring visions for the times of transition we find ourselves privileged to be living in.
I have had the great honour and pleasure of spending the last three weeks in the company of my teacher, Aunt and friend Brooke Medicine Eagle.
WITH FABIO GARCES
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
I have recently discovered that I am a master of deception. Self–deception primarily.
I finally realized this about myself after waking up for the 100th night in a row, wracked with anxiety and stress from multiple known and unknown sources that I have become incredibly skilled at ignoring my emotions.
Published in The Curious Mind, Medium – July 2018
Our minds these days seem to be perpetually full. Full of our to do lists, full of our expectations and full of our judgments of everyone and everything; including ourselves.
WITH BROOKE MEDICINE EAGLE
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
You know that feeling when you just can’t find the right words?
Yep – as a story-worker I have it all the time.
The sun shone down, hot and revitalising on my head and shoulders. And the summer breeze whispered through the coin shaped leaves of the Aspen tree’s, gathered like old friends around the flowing waters of the spring.
WITH EUAN SMITH
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
This storyhack is an extract from one of the ‘hidden chapters’ in Tough Bliss: Restorying Life.
I believe that deep down, humans all have a longing to feel connected and at home. Returning to the nurturing embrace of our living, breathing planet helps us remember what ‘home’ really means.
(Originally published on the 13th June, 2018 by Changehackers Podcast)
ChangeHackers is the daily podcast providing insight and inspiration for people changing their world.
Hosted by Tony Cooke, it shares every day Monday to Friday every week, a conversation with an inspiring ChangeHacker – someone who is moving the needle on the front line of change and transformation for sustainability.
WITH BRENDAN CONWAY
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
I have always loved the story of Chrion. A Centaur (half man, half horse), he seemed like a perfect fusion of gifts to my young mind. Intelligence and freedom, strength and wisdom, power and perseverance. But these gifts came at a price.
The past 9 months have been a particularly challenging time for me. You see, I have a habit of changing multiple areas of my life simultaneously and this time has been no different. I have just upped the scale and magnitude.
WITH TANAH WHITEMORE
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
It seems to me that we are surrounded by a lot of death right now.
The death of loved ones, the death of ecosystems, or the death of old and outdated world views. Even the death of our identities as we move from one stage of life to the next.
In the western world, death remains an enigma. Taboo. Something to be avoided at all costs in our culture of worshipping perpetual youth. However, it is inevitable for us all. You could say, the other side of the coin of life.
Just before my 12th birthday something (or someone) started to call me deep inside. It was like a soft undulating whisper in the night; an elusive shadow moving in the afternoon shade. Sometimes the presence would be so tangible I would imagine a beautiful woman was walking beside me as I played in the meadows and garden behind the cottage. She would whisper myths to me: stories of the sun, the moon and the cycles of time as they passed through the living beings of the earth.
WITH KELLY DANIELS
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
Published in The Curious Mind, Medium – April 2018
I have been engaged in an interesting research experiment this week. As I have been travelling through the forests of my everyday life, I have been asking the people I meet two questions –
1. How do you see the world around you right now?
2. What are you most afraid of?
I wanted to test the waters of the human story landscape around me and see what thoughts people were entertaining on a daily basis that were ultimately creating the reality of the story they were living in. The responses I received were in two decidedly different camps.
Written by Brooke Medicine Eagle and Genevieve Boast
Published in Indie Shaman Magazine – April 2018
Let me tell you a story of an amazing being that walked across the water into central America a few thousand years ago, bringing a teaching of love from the heart and oneness with each other and the great Creator. He was known as Dawn Star, for he prayed to the dawn star, Venus, every morning and was himself seen as the dawning star of a whole new day on earth, where love and brother/sisterhood would create a golden time. And a radiant time ensued as people followed his way, using their resources in positive and empowering ways for the good of the people rather than in judgment and warring. Dawn Star moved among the people sharing his Flower Song teachings and eventually made his way back to his central temple in Golden Tula. There, he offered his final words before it was his time to leave the planet allowing a new cycle to begin. It’s said that people from many lands gathered and formed a circle 20 miles deep and that when Dawn Star spoke, people of every culture and at the farthest distance heard and understood his powerful words.
WITH LALITH GUNARATNE
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
This week I have been in the city. As I traveled from one place to another, I observed. I listened. And I reflected.
The predominant tonality was one of distraction. I saw faces sucked down into phones, heard mindless chatter on cigarette breaks and witnessed multiple noisy after-work drinking conversations in the soundscape. Why?
We are the ancient ones who have returned for our people.
ALL people.
Once we have filled their bellies and sheltered their bodies and taught their spirits….
We have returned.
WITH REBEKAH SHAMAN
The podcast is a series of dialogues with global thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and modern mystics exploring the art and science of storymaking. Over the next 12 months we will cover the dynamics of personal, communal and global change through our series of ME, WE and US.
It seems to me that many of us are in a wistful search for something we call ‘home’. It’s a feeling that’s hard to grasp, the faint notes of a beautiful melody that drifts to us in those moments when our busy lives become still. Perhaps the song of ‘home’ really is a feeling rather than a thing or a place. Or perhaps it is the sense of rootedness that we discover when we align ourselves to who our ancestors are and where they lived – when we locate our heritage and history in their land. Genetics aside, I have spoken with enough people to know that, for each of us, there are places on this beautiful earth that invoke the feeling of safety and security that we associate with the idea of ‘home’. One of these places found me when I was least expecting it. Avebury – the place of the stone people. It is one of the spaces that I now call ‘home’.