"Hodjah Nasruddin! What do they do with the old full moons?"
"They cut them up into small pieces and make the stars!"
Any human life and biographical journey on this earth may feel at times like riding a giant roller-coaster swinging between opposite experiences in a funfair of events and possibilities.
Listening to autobiographical stories of people I meet in my work I never stop marvelling at the vastness of the creative source from which come to life countless individual stories. This infinite source of narratives, possibilities and variations expresses itself in 'real life' with even more imaginative story plots than those we find in traditional 'fictional' wonder tales.
Do you have a name for this 'virtual' source?
Can you observe its work inside/outside yourself?
Could it live in between things?
How active or passive are you in relationship to it?
Some old stories told from the beginning of time contain the secret that the latest scientific view of the world reveals: that everything in this world is in the process of continued movement, development and transformation.
But there is something in the depths of the human soul that hungers for wholeness, stability and solid ground to hold on to. Out of this need, some of us construct and hold on to the security of an Identity - based on a profession, religion, social conventions and norms, family roles, financial status etc… while others go on a spiritual journey to 'search for and find themselves'…
Hodjah Nasruddin was often seen pouring some yoghurt out of a cup into a certain lake.
"Nasruddin, what are you doing?" a man asked.
"I am turning the lake into yoghurt", Mullah Nasruddin replied.
"Can a little bit of yeast ferment the great lake?" the man asked while others laughed at Nasruddin.
"You never know - perhaps it might," Hodjah Nasruddin replied, "Just imagine WHAT IF it should!"
WHAT IF we ourselves are made of the same elements of possibility, movement and change the universe is made of? Could it be that we build and hold on to the story of an identity simply because we fear who we truly are? That is: beings of endless transformation, growth and change. Beings of BECOMING.
Working with Becoming is essential to many of the new storytelling courses I currently teach. By shifting my awareness to the place of 'Becoming', I notice the chance I am given at any moment to participate in co-creating and shaping the happenings around me. Connecting with the quality of change in me and with my capacity to change help me find gates to inspiration, creativity, spontaneity and intuition that guide me.
"And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to become.
You’ll be but a troubled guest on the dark earth."
Goethe
As a storyteller, when I tell traditional tales I engage in the worthy task of protecting and preserving ancient wisdom. But I also face the great dangers of getting stuck in the past, the familiar, tradition, old habits and old patterns of thinking. Working with 'Becoming' I can create fresh stories and consciously examine the stories of the past against the emerging story of the moment. This can give a whole new meaning to any event or story from the past and can offer new insights for actions into the future. For storytellers, working consciously with becoming can open a way to welcome change and flexibility and to search for, find, create, let go of and constantly recreate a new language to express and meet the emerging new stories of this time. A language of resurrection.
One day some people decided to play a trick on Hodjah Nasruddin. They came to his door holding a little bird cupped in their hands planning to ask Nassrudin whether it was alive or dead. If he said it was alive they would crush it to show him he was wrong. If he said it was dead they would let it fly away and still fool him. When they found the wise old man they said, "Oh wise Hodjah Nasruddin, the bird which we are holding, is it alive or dead?" Nasruddin thought for a moment and then looked into their eyes and replied, "The answer, my dear friends… is in your hands!"
A happy and ReCreative Easter to you all,
Roi Gal-Or
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