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Ancient healers understood very well the power of words, images, dance,
music, and especially the dynamic conflicts and characters in stories to
heal and comfort suffering people. They often diagnosed illness by
observing what parts of a story most resonated with their patient and
then told a special curative story to mobilize the sick person's
inherent healing capacities.
Contemporary healers, artists, and creative people can do the same for
our planet and all its creatures. Through the metaphors of artistic
expression, we can imagine into being a better story than the one that
is playing out now.
What exactly is a healing story, you may ask. Healing stories are
metaphors for the universal human struggle to create meaning and growth
out of misfortune. They're as old as humanity itself and are often
called hero's journeys; they're expressions of our natural resilience --
of hope, transformation, and redemption. In this kind of story, a
personal or collective disaster inspires someone to leave their ordinary
life and go on a difficult quest for the solution to the problem. After
many trials and defeats, overcoming dangerous obstacles and
adversaries, they succeed in claiming the healing knowledge, elixir, or
object, and bring it back home for the good of all. These times call for
heroes.
We all feel helpless and sickened about what's happening in the Gulf.
Once the oil leak is stopped, it will take years, even decades, for the
ecology, wildlife, and people of that region to recover. But we're not
helpless to create unexpected and amazing change through storytelling.
The purpose of this workshop is to activate collective energy for
restored health to the waters, wildlife, and people of the Gulf.
Here is a healing story exercise for yourself and the Gulf: What stands out for you about this event? What aspect of it do you most resonate with -- the loss of home for its animals, the poisoning of the water and the beaches, the careless disregard of BP? The resonating element in the event might be triggering unconscious pain from a deep internal wound that hasn't fully healed. In writing a story, poem, or free-write about that aspect of the story, you are also writing about a wounded part of yourself.
This exercise is not about writing a wishful but inauthentic vision
of what you'd like to see happen in the Gulf. It's about finding that
place in yourself that intersects with that larger story, and writing
whatever your soul and spirit send up from that place. That's how real
healing happens, both personally and for society.
In Chaos Theory there is a term called the butterfly effect. This means
that small actions in one part of a giant system can affect the whole
system. So a butterfly flapping its wings in New York over time could
create a fresh wind over the Gulf of Mexico.
Many minds moving with the same intention can create miracles. Think
back to the grassroots momentum that put President Obama in the White
House, against all odds. It began with hundreds of tiny Camp Obamas,
where people were asked to tell a better story for our country and for
their own lives. The sharing that happened at those storytelling camps
galvanized a movement. Together, possibly we can change this awful story
too.
What if millions of people
across the country let their imaginations loose to create healing
stories for the Gulf? What unimaginable possibilities might arise?
Mobilization of millions of citizens for the greatest environmental
clean-up in the history of the world? A new and more profound commitment
to taking care of our environment? What’s your wildest dream for our
land and its waters?
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So bringing our story practice back to the present, what most stands out for you about the whole situation of Trump in the White House? What most angers you, makes you sad, resonates in particular with some part of yourself. For me, it's the crushing oppression of stupid white men -- yes, that's an old wound in me that I'll probably be attending to for the rest of my life.
Pull out three or four words that immediately rise to consciousness.
Choose one word that has the most energy.
Set the timer on your phone and give yourself 7 minutes to free-write from that word.
Read your piece to a trusted friend who is wise enough not to judge discovery writing. Or, if you like it enough, read it to your video camera and post it to a small FB group. It must be witnessed and felt by someone to have its full power.
It's out there now in the world's energy -- a tiny healing flow, a flapping of a wing.
