The way to find your own myths is to determine those traditional symbols that speak to us and use them, you might say, as bases for meditation. Let them work on you.*
Joseph Campbell
Society wants us to live a planned existence, following paths that have been travelled by others. Tried and true. The known, the expected, the controlled, the safe. The path of the wanderer is not this. The path of the wanderer is an experiment with the unknown. To idle. To dream.**
Keri Smith
First we follow others,
Read others,
Speak with others;
Then we make our own path –
Though, to continue following, reading, conversing
with as many as possible
only adds to the uniqueness
of our way.
*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
**Keri Smith’s The Wander Society.
THIN|SILENCE 
So cool. Thanks. I like how you have poems at the end. Very humanizing. It is something incredible, and requiring enormous courage, to live one’s personal myth
That’s absolutely it. Life is asking us to be courageous in living the story that only we are able to.
That’s so beautifully said 😊😊 Based on what you said (“Life is asking us”), do you believe that there is such a thing as Life, some incredibly enormous Force or Warmth (using poetic language because I have no idea how to describe this)… something “warmer” than the New Age conception of the “Universe”, but more morally ambiguous than “God” in the sense of being outside what the mind can comprehend? In the sense of, if you are living in Life then you bloom? If you are not living in Life then you wither and are in agony? Life makes things alive. Sort of reminds me of Carl Jung. Or Joseph Campbell. When you try to be alive (carpe diem, etc) then you’re not really being guided by a moral compass it’s something else that’s also cool. But how can life not be good?
Then you were saying about a “story”. The idea that life and our lives are a story is awesome. I really like that idea. I’m so depressed and bummed out when I think that my life and the universe have no story to them, just is random meaninglessness. But what I see you saying is that it is not “The Story”. Each one of us has a story. We’re not all trying to live one single Story that is rigidly the same for all of us.
The great thing is when you are living in your story then you feel so amazing. I took a bunch of guesses with what you were saying: “Life is asking us to be courageous in living the story that only we are able to” but hopefully I came close with some of it. What do you think?
Thank you for sharing all of this. There are. more than seven billion different stories being lived on Earth right now, and for each one of these lives there could be several possible stories available. The same is true for you and me. It’s up to us to see who we are and what we have, and to create the story that is most meaningful to us, whether we believe in a god or not, whether we understand ourselves to be the most articulate expression of the universe or not. I follow and read people of all persuasions who want to live life fully towards making the world better.
Susan Cain’s Bittersweet is a lovely book exploring what life means, Alan Lightman’s Mr g is another wonderful offering, Viktor Frankl’s Yes to Life celebrates our unrepeatable imperfection, reminding me of Anne Lamott’s very earthy faith in God – a sample of agnostic, atheist, and believer.
That is so cool 😊 thanks. You are totally welcome. Those sound like beautiful voices (Cain, Lightman, Frankl and Lamott) that you are weaving together as part of your appreciation for the universe. I’m amazed how generously you draw from inspiration from so many walks of life. Personally I believe in Father Sky and Mother Earth. You might like reading about narrative therapy… it’s about creating the story of your life.
Thanks for this. Narrative therapy sounds similar to what I provide through dreamwhispering, the rewriting of a story or myth.
You’re welcome 😊 cool I read your bio on your site where you talk about dreamwhispering but wasn’t sure what you meant. Can you tell me more?
I’d better rewrite the description. Dreamwhispering is a journey or conversation that I’ve been shaping for more than twenty years. It borrows from many places, but the idea is for someone to be able to spend some time looking at what lies beneath the surface of their lives (and they often rush over), exploring their talents, energies, and values, towards creating their personal story or myth in response to two questions: Who is my true Self? and What is my contribution? I normally offer an hour to someone to find out more, and be able to ask any questions.
Holy cow. Cool. I’d love to take you up on that. That happened at just the right time. Dreamwhispering makes sense. How much do you charge? Living your dream + listening to the whispers from beneath the surface… I like it. Talents, energies, values… that is light
Thank you for this. Sorry to have taken a little longer getting touch about this. I could share more with you about dreamwhispering, and you can see whether it is something that you think and feel will work for you. Drop me an email at geoffrey@thinsilence.org, and we can continue the conversation.
Awesome I will definitely do that soon 😃 Thank you for agreeing to share some more about dreamwhispering. That’s wise of you to make sure I know what dreamwhispering is and if it’s right for me before you help me. “Dreamwhispering” also reminds me of “The Dog Whisperer” (Cesar Milan) hahah
Let me know when you’ve sent an email, just so that I can make sure that it’s arrived.
Awesome thanks 😊😊 I will