What Stories Are You Running From?
The nights are beginning to grow longer and darker, making this the perfect time of year for wrapping up in the warmth and light of home and reading stories. With the dark months comes the holiday season and we are moving ever closer towards American Thanksgiving coming up next week, with Christmas not too far behind. Sara Walka, Head Magic Maker and Founder of The Sisters Enchanted, has all this very much in mind in this week’s ‘Expedition to Soul’ podcast when she urges us to take some time out to think about the stories in our past that we are running from and how we can run towards them and embrace them instead.
Think for a minute:
What stories in your past are you hiding from or running away from?
What would happen if you ran towards rather than away from these stories?
We all have many stories that influence who we are. Some from our own lives, some from our family.
Most families have stories that we don’t really understand, secrets that we are aware of only in how they influence our own stories and our own lives, even if we don’t know any more details than that.
This has been something on Sara’s mind over recent months, since moving her grandparents to her state over the summer so they can be closer to the rest of the family. Sara always knew her family carried the story of young mothers. But as she was applying for a new state drivers’ license, it dawned on Sara that her grandmother had married just five days after turning 16. She had been brought up on a farm in Kentucky without much money, and even though she is still only 84, lived a childhood without modern household resources, such as an outhouse in place of a bathroom. Then, at just turned sixteen, she married and ran headlong into a new story, a new life in a very different situation.
She was running away from being that kid from Kentucky and this is how she raised her daughter, Sara and Anna’s Mum, as someone running away from that story and all its secrets. She couldn’t remember when and where she married, even when she needed details for her documents.
Being bought up by a mother running away from this story influenced how Sara and Anna’s mother experienced her childhood. So, she had stories to run from, which then influenced how she raised her own children, and so on…
Sara’s husband, Kevin’s grandmother came from a family with their own stories to run from, including adoption. No one knew much about husband’s grandmother at all so there are many gaps and secrets in his family stories, lots being run from, lots to impact the experiences and future stories for generations to come.
Who you are is based on stories of those who raised you.
The stories they run from impact their experiences, who they are and how they raised you.
This then impacts your stories.
You can keep running from them.
OR you can run back towards them, heal them and let them inform you of your strengths and weaknesses.
Reading fictional stories can be helpful as, in letting us see what happens in imagined endings, we can see the possibilities that things will be better if we run into our own stories.
Norse tales and mythology are great to read at this time of year. They are full of dark and strange happenings. But, under that web of weirdness there is always something warm in the story. These takes are a great representation of all of us. We all have a warm heart but we may have to dig beneath the odd, murky parts to get there. That’s why these stories are so read, both for entertainment in the dark days and evenings, and to learn about ourselves and others.
Take for example, The Wild Hunt.
There are many versions of this story (some bloodier than others).
One interpretation of The Wild Hunt involves Odin riding through the sky on a sleigh of sorts pulled by wolves or maybe horses and collecting the soul of anyone who happens to catch a glimpse of him.
This version of the story takes place on the longest, darkest night of the year, Yule, or the winter solstice.
What can we learn from this story?
Do we come to the conclusion that there are very scary things that go bump in the night?
Or, do we consider the lesson that even when everything feels dark and like your soul is about to be swept away, if we can gather together, look after each other in the light and the warmth at home, hang on on for just one more day and stay warm in our hearts, the sun will always rise again?
So, some food for thought for this week.
What are the stories you are hiding from, either stories in your family or within yourself?
How are these stories influencing the way you think, dream and behave?
What would happen if you ran towards them and healed them instead of running away from them?
And, as we approach this holiday season, when many of us may be challenged by the people we share them with…
What are stories of others we share our life with or come across through the day?
How may they be influencing how we find them, how they behave with us, how we experience them?
Are their stories clashing with ours?
Have some grace towards yourself and your stories and towards others and the stories who make them who they are.
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