What is the greatest truth you have learnt so far? And what is it’s story? Do tell, remembering the most important truths can sometimes be revealed in a lie.
– Scottish Storytelling Centre
Often our lies get in the way of telling our truths. The lies are strong. Not that we meant to create them.
We tend to hold on to the lies, believing we can’t give them up. They have been told for so long we don’t know where to start picking to unravel them. Sadly we have no idea when they were first born.
We eventually realise that it’s only our lies that are dragging us down and keeping us hidden from our core. We learn that the lies are hurting us more than anything else possibly could.
In my own experience – and listening to others – what people really want is peace, love and happiness. They want to wake up each day and know they do matter, that they are and will always be okay regardless of what they have to face in life.
But, oh, my, the lies that get in the way of that simplicity. Not only content with learning a lie, we seek out people who confirm that the myths we are telling ourselves are true. Repeated often enough the lies become the belief.
I’ve lied/lie to myself. And I don’t know any other human being who hasn’t. I’ve learnt though that it’s the smallest lies that I’ve told myself (and been taught) that have caused the most distortions in my life. I’ve well and truly deceived myself.
We move back and forth between truth and lies. But it’s only in exposing the lies can you begin the process of turning up truth. The poet, Rilke, wrote: “I want to unfold, I don’t want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie”
There will be times, many of them, when we can hear beneath the endless babble of the lies that a quiet voice speaking to us. Almost inaudible until we turn to listen, but it’s there, always. It’s still us. It’s part of the story. That’s the unfolding.
I invite you to have a feast with your lies. Ask them to sit with you. Expose them. Feel them when you tell them. Don’t resist not looking at them. Accept they have existed and ask yourself how did you learn that lie. Frame it in a past story. Tell it how it was. Then unfold – or start to unpack – the truth.
What is the most distorted lie you have told/are telling about your life? What is the actual truth?
Links: Scottish Storytelling Centre
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