A good story that one ...

I know somewhere in a box is a book of short stories by First Nations' author Thomas King entitled, "One Good Story, that one ..."

The title story has a Native elder, or is it the Trickster, hood-winking white anthropologists by telling them a reworked creation story ... as story that is told with a chuckled "One Good story, that one ..."

Story telling is an important feature of every human culture ... long lonely nights were passed by sitting around the hearth and sharing the stories passed from person to person, and generation to generation ... children everywhere love to cuddle in a lap and hear a story ... much of what happens over coffee or tea is story telling ...

Story is central to our experience as human beings ... and vital to the positing of our lives and existence within the broader context of the world ... without story we wouldn't understand how or even where we fit in ... we need to story to define us and under gird our personal world with meaning ...

Lately though I've come to realize the power the story our Pain-Body spins has over us ...

I remember presiding at a funeral once where the departed was being praised as a saint, or at least someone who stood in close proximity to that designation ... the looks of confusion in the assembled congregation increased with each passing sentence that further underscored the wonderful attributes and their many positive features ... I had heard of not speaking ill of the dead, but reaching into the realm of the fictitious was a bit hard to take, for me and for those gathered ...

The reset was hit when one voice challenged the prevailing and glowing commendation being sputtered from the pulpit ... the observation that embraced the truth about the dearly departed brought laughter and most importantly RELIEF to all assembled including a family who had been wondering if they could have been SO wrong about their lost member ... the words - "are you sure they're talking about ------ ?? It doesn't sound like them ..." whispered a much needed truth that dispelled the fiction being spoken ...

I've thought of that day many times in the ensuing years ... I've always strived for honesty in regards to ministry, particularly in the context of funerals and memorials ... I try to call it like I see it ... but in reading Eckhart Tolle, I've come to realize not just the centrality of the story, but the ferocity by which our egos will cling to the fiction that fuels the pain body and feeds (negatively) the pain body despite ample evidence to the contrary ...

In recent days I've had several conversations and exchanges with people who have closed their eyes to the fictional story they are clinging to and allowing to define their lives ... one person was honest, yet un-enlightened in exclaiming - "this is the story I HAVE to tell myself right now, because I can't handle any other version ..."

Others are more subtle in their desperate clinging to their respective stories ... sadly, until we (and I include myself in this) - until WE stop feeding the fictional stories that renew the pain-body and in turn fuel the ego (even if negatively), we will never break free of the toxicity that those stories represent ... close our eyes to the truth will not change a falsity into a truth, and it will not bring healing, wholeness nor the awakening we need and deserve ...

Letting ourselves be defined by a narrow story premised on a falsehood serves no one ... false stories are the fodder of coffee shop gossip and serve only to create a tempest in a tea pot that in an ideal and healthy context would hurt no one ... but regretably, our world and the majority of the citizens around us aren't prepared to break free !!!

Regrettably, most stories told and re-told and passed on, are false creations of our ego, that seek only to trap us in our wallowing pain-body, and that fail to set us free by embracing THE TRUTH !!!

The truth is not just a story we tell ourselves ... it is the indisputable outcome of a healthy story told free of a weak and insecure ego. In the face of a healthy story, the unhealthy stories crumble in the face of the truth, leaving us to shore up crumbling walls, or to walk free ...

Closing our eyes and stoppering our ears to the truth and clinging to the illusionary story we've woven for our selves, pretending (perhaps not even consciously) that our little safe world is 'OKAY' and the story we tell ourselves is ALL there is helps no one ... to open our eyes and our souls to the NOW and to live present to our existence requires setting ourselves free of the story and detaching ourselves from the drama we've created by saying - "this is what is ..." Too often, what is is simply and uttely a lie we tell ourselves to maintain the illusion of safety and comfort and to avoid our fears ...

Until we accept that we deserve better our story will continue and we will live those lies, and feed our ego by fueling our pain body ... Looking into the mirror that stands before us and accepting the TRUTH is never easy ... but is needed for an awakened, a whole and a healthy life ...

The choice is ours to make it ... there may be two options, but there is only ONE choice ... and it begins with the truth ...

s