Adventure has a new name. Yours. You are uniquely called and uniquely gifted to reach out and save, walk into prisons, defeat darkness and destroy evil. Yes - You. You are powerful enough to do this simply because you are who you are. Your authentic created and creative self is brace enough, strong enough and loving enough to say, “No,” to what is evil and stand against it.
When a society makes itself afriad in the name of safety and status quo dominates there is only one thing lef to do - fear the unknown.
But that is not history, science or achievement… it is a quiet death of a thousand drudgeries.
I know this and you do too.
When we are forced to regulate our dream into non-exsistance they become taunts in the quiet recesses of our hearts, where the beat a drum in a covert narrative counter to our status quo…. And we become afriad.
And we pass that fear onto our children.
That’s not the future I want for myself or any child. That’s not a future that will allow us to survive as a species.
We need to reclaim that sense of adventure… and we do that through learned behaviors. All behaviors are learned. They shown to us. They are modeled. We show bravery to our children. We teach them goodness and courage. We teach them how to react by our own reactions.
But their dreams are always larger than ours… they know how to go on adventures.
The stories we tell and show our children impact them and they stories we read, watch and interact with ourselves, impact us, even as adults.
For adults, the bulk of the stories we encounter seems to be the consistent gloom, doom, boom news cycle of fear, death and mayhem. If we do read fiction - most the stories I’m finding are dark and agnsty, just like the news cycle.
Stories like these reinforce our fear. They claim the monster is larger than us - when the reality might be that the monster is only big because its a fearsome shadow on the wall.
But if we’re scared - we won’t move at all.
That’s why adventure has to call on us - persistently.
The monomyth quest narrative teaches us what challenges are ahread, and how to overcome them. It hones skills, builds relationship and help us navigate our world from the unknown to the known and back.
The most important skill through all this?
Your journey’s knoweldge helps others and you’re not afriad to go into the unknown to find others and rescue them.
That sacred rescue and the journey back from darkness is the key to storytelling and healing. The rescue is the begining - the healing mean you have a companion and are building a relationship with them. Once your knowledge and experience have empowered your companion you will fight battles and face challenges together. Others will join you and together your stories will heal nations.
Don’t believe me?
Last year I took a counseling course. It was designed by two ladies who’d worked quietly together over twenty years healing adult survivors of human trafficking and trauma based mind control. They partnered with a scholar who I follow, and when I heard about thier course, I decided to enroll. That course has worldwide reach and they want to grow it.
I teach and talk in this blog about some of the things I’ve learned from them and others, as well as from my own life experience. This blog is impacting you, because you’re reading it.
See how this empowered story telling can work to heal entire groups of people?
This is why its vital for you to tell your story!
Perpetual Disclaimer for this series:
I am not a counselor or a mental health professional. I am going to attempt to avoid things which will cause alarm or harm, but I can't know what will trigger each individual. If you need to speak to a mental health professional please know that there are resources available.
Your stories are amazing!
Chronic Writer