"The world is made up of stories...."

Spiritual resource to share: your story


"The world is made up of stories, not atoms." Muriel Ruykuyser

I had a meeting today with most of the area's spiritual leadership, otherwise known as a ministerial association. I like this group. Open-minded, respectful of diversity, it sees in itself the possibility of coming together to respond to social issues in our community and bring healing and a common unity.

Today's meeting was about the need to breakthrough a culture of failure in the high school, as there is more violence breaking out between the white students and the Anishinaabe students (also known as the Ojibwe). One of the members of the ministerial association is Anishinaabe, and he and his brother brought the rest of us along to understand more about this nation.

Anishinaabe means "first people" and in the broadest sense, they explained, we are all first people. We all need each other to live in peace. Unlike many with a European heritage who can go back to one's homeland, the homeland of the Anishinaabe is where we are standing. Their heritage and identity is in their stories.

There is much more to say here, but the one thing that struck me is the humble and persistent realization that we are all part of one another's stories. Acknowledging this and then taking responsibility for it removes the arrogance and ignorance that would distance us from solutions. And, being a part of one another's stories, we have great potential to bring healing.

To illustrate this point, we played a game. (This is a GREAT game for family gatherings, driving the point home how much we add to the richness of each other's lives!)

This is how the game is played:

One person starts by standing and saying a phrase that could be the beginning, ending or middle of a story. The next person gets up and stands to one side of that person and adds a phrase or a sentence or two, and then the two of them recite their part of the story. (People can add their part either at the beginning or end, or anywhere in the middle.) With each additional person, the story unfolds and is told. This continues until everyone has added their bit to the story. Finally when everyone has contributed, the full story is told, each person saying their part. If you want to designate a winner, it is that person who can tell the whole story back to the group in its entirety.

Fun, yes?

As I look at my life and the people that make it up, I see how much richer my life is for knowing all these people. We are all children of God, and each of us brings that dimension of God's love (a favorite and repeating theme of mine!) to each other's stories. Understanding who we each are individually and spiritually, we can encourage, enhance and support one another's stories with the highest recognition that we are all children of God -- children of one Creator - which would make us all "the first people."





To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.