Storytellers Rite

Telling stories, speaking up, could quite possibly be the most courageous and dangerous thing a human can do.

The Storyteller’s Rite

I was onstage, 26, in Chicago in a play called Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I had a monologue. I cannot remember right now what it was about but I remember a certain twinge of vulnerability. It was very close to home. I was asked to more or less speak it full front to the audience. It was one of those moments where the actress and the character combine to form something symbiotically one - who is really speaking? Of course, the audience doesn’t know this. But the actor does. That was the first time I realized just how terrifying speaking truth out loud for those who will hear can be… and how simultaneously courageous.

Telling stories, speaking up, could quite possibly be the most courageous and dangerous thing a human can do.

After having spent the better part of a year having you peer into my DNA story, updating you of the highs and lows, (and then going radio silent as it all ended abruptly), you may wonder why. Or, “what the heck happened?” Me too! Well that’s not completely true for I know exactly “why” but some of those things will be left to me. (Or the novel. Will there be a novel? We’ll see). But in this interim - (it’s amazing what God can teach us in a relatively short amount of time if we are seeking the truth… and by that I mean the truthy truth… and by that I mean seeking Him) - so much has “downloaded” into my mind, heart, and spirit on this odyssey, it’s hard to believe that only two months have passed since the cord was cut.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about - and also seems to have been thrust in front of me in various forms of which I’ll share below is the plight of The Storyteller; the right and rite of The Storyteller to speak out or to write.

Where would any of us be without those brave enough to speak up?

Think of all the stories you hear or see on a daily basis - not only the scripted stories but more the stories that you are seeing unfold in real time… the news, those of your family, friends or the random social media video that arrives on your scroll. Someone somewhere is giving you a peek into their lives; some shallow, nothing more that trivial trashy gossip, but some, many, leading you deep down the well of their own odyssey.

You can tell the one who is ready to share, the one who is sharing not for anyone’s real good, the one who is simply seeking attention, the one who is bumbling over their words yet crying out for help. You can tell.

As long as this “one” is not talking about you, you peer in with the curiosity of Alice. You lean in hard for a crumb of hard reliable truth. Something you can hang your hat on. Something that might give you permission to keep plugging forward on your own road. You applaud them for their courage and bravery. Or perhaps your eyes open wide, eyebrows up. Did he really just go there? you think. <Snaps> You drink in the courage and strength of spirit. Sometimes you’re enraged with the story, the opinions. Sometimes you see through it. You see the one-sidedness, the gaps. Sometimes you see those gaps are due to varying reasons: anger, respect, fault-finding, honor.

But it’s not about you, not directly about you, so you listen. You drink in and satisfy your hunger for a crumb of wisdom or oneness… or dirt.

Every story ever told is about someone. This someone has friends, family, co-workers. Someone somewhere is to be affected sometime. For good or ill.

The point is - No one gets out unscathed because no one is free from imperfection. No one.

When you are called to tell your story, (in some way, we are all called to this), there’s really no way through this Storytellers Rite, (right, write, plight) if you are being raw, honest, speaking from your wholeness (yes, sometimes through your brokenness - for how else do we arrive to the place the experience is calling), you will encounter, to put it lightly: push-back.

We frail humans adore, even worship at the altar of, our own opinions.

The Push-Back

For instance, in the last few weeks I have witnessed individuals I know experience this push back. It is sometimes appropriate to call it blow-back (think of awakening the bear in the cave) for speaking up and out the truth of their experience. Yes yes yes there are three sides to the truth in everything. But we all start somewhere on the spectrum.

A friend speaks up in his cancer support group. After having survived stage four, and now disease free, he speaks candidly about how he only eats certain foods and this greatly informed his path of healing. As he puts it “I didn’t shame anyone or push my agenda onto anyone, I just shared my own experience.” Blowback: He was asked to leave the cancer “support” group.

He ended the story: “Now”, and I quote, “I get loud.” The Storyteller in this scenario roars back to the bear. For he has been called up to the mic.

A woman with two master degrees in counselling shares family generational … oh what do we want to call it? Sin? Lies? Secrets? Let’s just go with very bad behavior… She shares how she was disinherited from her trust fund for telling the truth of her suffering. In a nutshell, stopping the nonsense; doing her professional work that she’s spent years studying to quite literally help others… all for what? To shut her mouth? Blowback: Disinherited.

I see the glare in her eye, the smarts. She’s up to something. She winks at the camera. She’s not letting one more young woman go down like that. She can make her own money. Being cut off is a blessing to her.

And we see everyday some suffer imprisonment, even death, as blowback.

We watch, see, listen to these stories and shout to the rooftops with these who speak out, we shake our proverbial fists with and for them. Yes! We say in our hearts! You “Go!” You tell your story!! “Thank God because I’ve been needing to do that too…. I’ve needed that help… that happened to me… I thought I was the only one.”

From The Storyteller we are given a step toward walking away from that which is no longer our identity.

We rarely give thought to the one who is seething on the other side because their dirty little secret, albeit anonymously, was just splayed over the interwebs. Usually those who think this have a grandiose idea of themselves… sure that the billions of web users are thinking about them every moment - forever. That their reputations, (or smoke screens), have been ruined. Grandiose indeed.

One can usually intuit where The Storyteller currently resides on the healing path (wholistically speaking) as they relay their story. Are they seeking the truth toward healing, understanding and untimate forgiveness? Or are they spewing blame, shame and payback? Are they asking hard questions? Are they attempting deeper thought? The listener knows. And dependent upon the listeners emotional maturity, will understand it’s a process.

From Brokenness or Wholeness?

This is the difference between storytelling from brokenness or wholeness. Sometimes The Storyteller openly takes you on that journey. But if openly - then usually they are desiring a healing and closure; a peace. Even if they aren’t quite sure how to get there in the moment.

Making Peace is Different Than Keeping Peace

Making peace and keeping peace are two entirely different things. Keeping peace is often confused or synonymous with keeping secrets. Usually The Called Storyteller is often the “making” of one yet accused of not “keeping” the other. The keeping of peace is a counterfeit of the hard work. Was Jesus making or keeping peace when he, invited tax collectors and prostitutes to break bread or when he flipped the tables….

The Peace Cake

It occurs to me that making peace is like making a cake. You have to put many differing ingredients, (story, truth, lies, approach, desire, emotion, forgiveness, questions, hope, understanding, mistakes, sanity…), then you combine them, even whip them, blend them.

You stir it up.

You bake them. Hopefully what comes out of the purifying fire is a well made new thing. Scrumptious, hard won. Good and satisying to digest.

It took commitment, sifting, good measure, strength, work and willingness to lay all the necessary ingredients out there.

Storytellers Apostling the Next Generation

I listen to the stories above, being ousted for a healing story, being disinherited for refusal to allow past generational hurt to continue down the line, in both cases a position of a kind of apostling the next generations. I think and wonder why those on the other side of the story are so obviously triggered … I think of words like “control”, “truth” and phrases like “the jig is up” and “you can run but you can’t hide”. There’s a list. You might have your own.

I think of the quote roaming around that I can only paraphrase… “Well if they didn’t want you telling the story they should have behaved better.”

We all behave badly at some point. The difference is - are we desiring the road to behaving better? Is that ongoing? Or are we the bear hibernating year-round in the cave ready to devour any who dare awaken the beast within to justice and ultimate peace?

Are you desiring to hear the truthy truth as long as it doesn’t touch your inner circle? How devoted are you to the path of righteousness in the Spirit?

There is nothing casual about the story, The Storyteller, or the right to write and to tell.

“It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ¹ There should be nothing casual (or reactive) about the listening either. We are companions on this journey. Brothers and Sisters in Christ and His creation.

Another Story

A woman learns of a new family she didn’t know existed. She has walked in and dealt with deep rooted rejection her whole life. She steps out in faith. She warns openly that this is hard. She trusts in the unknown. She performs a full one-woman musical out of love, filled with hope. She sings the lyrics “The world’s so much better with you by my side.” She is encouraged by the response of the new ones. She is betrayed by those who promised to be stalwart because she shared her story. The whole story. Because she asked hard questions calling out unhealthy, potentially further damaging, behavior. Was it sharp? Yes. Was it blaming? Opinions differ. (But she shared the journey for you. Because you might just need to hear it right now - today - and know that you can prevail in love.)

She’s a spiritual writer, for God’s sake. This is her call. Blowback: Get out. You’re not family after all. The year was a test run and you failed. You’re an outsider.²

The surrounding witnesses of the event are potentially forced to “choose a side” because of the slammed door. She ponders why God would do this to her. Perhaps they ponder the same.

But she ventures down the well to ask harder questions.

She cries non-stop for a couple of months silently wondering how a person could produce so much water from their eyeballs. Trust obliterated for a while. But, The Great Storyteller is ever faithful and, through hard fought forgiveness, she begins to glean the bigger picture. Perhaps… perhaps she was used for an ultimate good that had less to do with her than she thought. Perhaps she was sacrificed on the altar for a greater good that she may never see this side of heaven. Perhaps. Slowly she is lifted and doesn’t cry so much anymore. An inner peace has been made.

After all, it isn’t about us. It never is.

She understands fully now that she has one Father, Who is in heaven, Who will never leave or forsake her. She understands fully Who has always been the one saying “Who’s my girl?”³. She understands. Act two has begun.

What does she do next? She continues to tell her story, of course.

It has been, and is, a rite to tell it.

A calling. A command.

Your Calling

The one truly called is given a choice to sit down and shut up (keep the peace) or to enter a larger arena and lead (make the peace). Could the Spirit be allowing these blow backs to rile you, to get you justifiably angry so that you will continue to walk the red hot coals for the benefit of one who needs the wisdom of your journey? It feels like it’s all about you. And it is… but, ultimately, it isn’t. It’s given to you to give.

Should the innocent one suffer as you did? If not, if you are called, (are there any who are not?) then the bear will be needfully awakened by a new roaring - that of the The Lion.

That’s you.

So tell your story. Relay it. Express it. Tranform from and transcend it.

Roar.

Do all things with great love.

Mother Theresa

1. The Lord of The Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)

2. It must be noted that not all the family has responded this way and there have been extended family who have left the doors open and reached out welcoming conversation. For that I am deeply grateful. It is a healing balm. And in that I feel loved.

3. The title of my one-woman show about my relationship with fathers.

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Coming up:

🕊️ Storytellers Rite: A Sacred Space to Unveil the Voice Within - A one-on-one experience to discover the voice of your soul—rooted in truth, rising in light, becoming who you're called to be.

Storytellers Rite is a sacred 1:1 storytelling session that blends theatre, spiritual direction, and soul listening.
It’s not therapy. It’s not performance. It’s a deeply guided process to help you give voice to your story—the way it calls to be spoken from the light.

I look forward to sharing more soon. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to be on the mailing list for more information.