We are all made of vignettes (good, bad, ugly, indifferent) woven together to create a story that shapes who we are, guides our journey, and influences our choices. Our story connects us to others and outlines our path; it holds our hand and grows as we encounter more vignettes to strengthen it.
Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 20.
It is the way we interpret our story, how we share it and when we choose to tell it that determines the extent to which we will own and learn from it or let it define and lead us. We have the power to use our story positively or negatively.
The next steps start with us. Whether personally or professionally, only we can tell our feet, hearts, and minds where to go; and what adventures to begin, places to explore and dreams to catch.
We could all learn (in moderation) from Vader ↓
Monique that’s brilliant, of our lives as stories and “Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s Chapter 20.”
Learning in moderation from all over — indeed even from Star Wars movies
blessings,
Cynthia
Thank you so much for the permission offered in this essay-to disconnect from what may be holding us back from pursuing our dreams, our aspirations. I guess I’ve found a softer or maybe messier approach that’s involved a tension, rather than a complete “killing off” of the past. My past experiences have become rich fertile ground for so much wisdom as I evolve in my self-discovery. The treasures that often lie buried in the boxes packed away from past experiences remain golden, memorable, life-changing. Like walking up a mountain and encountering a familiar bush, plant, or tree, I see my life as a journey of seeing the past through new eyes, loving eyes, compassionate viewpoints as I glean another piece of gold from all the trauma excavation, the healing of all the unhealed places-the thawing of the frozen, the unburdening of grief, hurts, meanings I held tight to, the shedding of all those thousands of limiting beliefs made up in my own mind or spoken by another person outside and then ingested by my psyche. Letting go while at the same time holding onto the wisdom gleaned feels like the way I’ve chosen–like breathing in and breathing out–a cycle rather than a scorched earth-a gentle falling away rather than a violent stripping to the core. What gets born comes from the mulch of what has transformed from living things. Thank you for opening the door to a discussion of our stories and their evolution, and beautiful becoming, Monique.