And so i stand,
With these threads in hand-
Of the various thoughts
I researched and chased fervently
Trying to quench my thirst over the years...
Now-
Looking back to where I began, I see
A glorious tapestry taking form...
Alas, I only describe one part of the elephant as I perceive it…
I want to see the whole beautiful beast!
Don’t you?
The tapestry is waiting for you to pick up threads and describe your part of the elephant...so we can all see the big picture.
Together.
That's why storytelling is vitally important.
-Lora Baccus
Storytelling is crucial to society. Most of what we learn about different cultures has been passed down via the lips of our ancestors through today. Ever play the whisper game? What is whispered in the first ear is different at the end? What if the behemoth of our perspectives and interpretations are off? Whether it's a little or a lot...what if the totality of reality was dispersed in pieces through humanity's lines of thought & allllll its differences?? What if coming together brought those pieces together blended in thought (this is so much more than coexisting...way beyond that. I'm talking one mind, one accord thought). What brings together in such a profound and glorious way? Love. Love does that. Always has. Always will.. It's that simple. Humbling. ** Our ancestors set the ball in motion. Pulled the ball back on that slingshot in love and released it to travel down the line to you and me in the form of stories whispered in our ears. (That one made me chuckle- Mental picture with audio: "Good Luucckkkkkkk!! With "You can do it" Waves....thumbs up...high fives coming from our ancestors to us.) And they had their children, told them of their origin. The story of us from the beginning. They grew up and told their children the story of their origin their parents told them. The story of us grew. Expanded. Intertwined from the start. They repeated these stories all the way down to us. Me. You. Us. We. Humanity. The first experienced it, those that followed described parts of the elephant to those that follow. Along the way, magnificent beings of love appeared to speak wisdom and impart love, speaking in parables to the core of our being. As we all lived, moved and raised families in the same current they shined the light on- from the first...to us and on to future generations. I'm seeing light bulbs turn on... Get it, don't you. That's why storytelling is so vital. If not for oral and written stories, cultural histories, folklores and more - we wouldn't have the glorious task of mining for gold. That pearl of great price. That's the Piece each one shares in common with another. (Love.) We wouldn't have so many different lenses of perspective to look through if not for our ancestors' drive to preserve and communicate how we got here and how it all exists to us. Acknowledge love wherever you discern it. That's why I've spent many sleepless nights of my life reading....researching and following love. ***
“Hi, my name is Lora.”
(Raises hand…taps microphone..)
“Ya, Hi” (waves)
I am a recovering indoctrinate.
I wasn’t raised in church.
As an adult I attended church, sporadically mostly. I even taught Sunday school for a while.
I just thought one day…
Hm….
What’s up with all the denominations?
Each of them want you baptized into “their” church…even if you’ve been baptized in another.
Why?
Just to be sure?
(No doubt, a lot of it has to do with wanting your tithe.)
As far as I had studied, Jesus just did it once?
All the “we are right, everyone else is wrong.” And the “us four no mores”
So many church splits. Ravaging emotional, energetic, spiritual damage in the splits aftermath.
(Maybe the splits happen for a reason. Benefit of doubt given that groups split off from other groups with the best of intentions. Doubtful the cost has been considered though or what they are putting in motion. Many have woken up in such circumstances.)
First, I set out to research each and of every evangelical denomination. I even started mapping it out on a board to help connect the dots.
Quickly, I realized I would need a much bigger board.
Daunted.
An accurate word for describing how I felt researching the inceptions of the varied beliefs and foundational tenets each group staked their piece of religion on.
Why so many?
???
I have lived my entire life in North America. Only stands to reason I would be influenced by regional beliefs for North America.
So…
Yes.
Yes, I did give chase to that rabbit.
Which leads to a time that I believed the old testament was the real bible. And a lot of stuff in the new testament was wrong except about Jesus…who I now called Yeshua. Even later on Yahushua.
Surely I thought I had caught that rabbit…but the rabbit kept running and I kept chasing…and studying. Following Love.
Researching.
And following the thread of love.
I was tracing our steps back for this particular religious thought to our ancestors original knowledge.
****
I didn’t stop there…it became a thirst to know…the origin of everything.
Compulsion.
I had read the latest and greatest authors and preachers of our current time and still found wanting…
I went on to study the voices of old: Brother Lawrence, Thomas a Kempis, Madame Guyon, Francois Fenelon, and many more. There was magic in these texts. I even discovered one of the newer voices of today lifted words from their pages and did not attribute their source of inspiration. Tsk. Tsk.
Full hard stop for me reading contemporary Christian voices after noting plagiarism in one book. I no longer wanted to read any of them.
Maybe I did throw the baby out with the bathwater. Seriously, though, to find a voice of great renowned quoted word for word and not cited…Turned. Me. Off.
At that point, I felt each contemporary Christian voice was merely parroting the others.
I wanted meat.
Sails set to continue pursuit of original belief, not only the line that carried down to us regionally.
Rabbit by my side.
We were off...
I read the text not included as cannon in the bible.
Digested it and found gold.
And I stayed there for a while mountain climbing Apocryphal text…
I had long before this time officially and unapologetically left organized religion. Not in a thumbing my nose at it kind of fashion per se, more like institutionalized organized religion and having to submit to one line of thought just wasn’t relevant to me anymore.
Birds fly freely where they will.
Some fly higher than others. Yet, they are all a beautiful part of our world.
Churches are bird cages.
I say that with sincerest humility with zero intention to slight believers that enjoy the congregational atmosphere.
It’s all about community. I value community myself!
I am walking my path.
The well in me was bubbling…
*****
Valleys and mountains go together. Healing is in the Valley. Hard knocks. Stress. Anguish. Grief. Life changes. New jobs. Moves. Caregiver. And so much more. Also, many I cannot comprehend too...because I haven't been through it for myself. Those are paths that lead you in the Valley. It's part of life. Trying to keep those plates spinning. Seems like the goal... Is going through valleys out of our control? Maybe? Karma? I don't have all the answers. The more I learn and perceive...the less I know, and it's humbling. Awe inspiring. Maybe part, not all, of the path into a Valley is partially self inflicted. In an ancestral, karmic sense? As in the sins of the father transferring to the sons kind of way?
Something else to think about. Which begs the asking...why do people self inflict? They aren't healed, whole, and intact in their soul and spirit. We ARE all good people. We were born instinctively loving....this is the when bad things happen to good people part... *Bad things happened to us along the way *we've made bad decisions *we behaved badly
Am I the only one raising my hand to acknowledge I have experienced all of the above? Acknowledging I have behaved badly as well in the past, though unintentional, I did. (Yours does stink too. You are part of humanity. Everyone has those places they don't want to look back on. I'll be the first one to say I do. I do not care who you are...Period. Key here is personal accountability, ownership, and growth. Some realize this, embrace it and implement these crucial concepts in their lives. Others do not. Personal decisions. Don’t judge anyone, you don’t know where they are on their path.) In reality...all the news, blogs, social media, books. All the content-every bit. Is really just an never ending story of 0's and 1's. I prefer my 0's and 1's be arranged in such a way somebody, even if it is only one person will be enriched & lifted up. My paying it forward because I have absolutely been edified by some fantastic content in my surfing of rabbit holes on the web. You're now conscious of that fact, create good content & treat yourself and others with compassion.
We can heal deep wounds with story telling as well.
Tell your story!
Tell the stories your ancestors passed down to you!
Tell new stories that makes us think and examine our perspectives!
Tell stories that unite us, the human race.
Create.
Just create.
Love is the key. Use it.
Lora Baccus February 2019
originally published on Medium
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