We cannot have an identity of our own until we have our own story. But it is also by way of story that we know we need an identity.*
James Carse

A ritual is nothing but the dramatic, visual, active manifestation or representation of a myth. By participating in the rite, you are engaged in the myth, and the myth works on you – provided, of course, that you are caught by the image.**
Joseph Campbell

So many stories awaited your birth,
Swooping you up and carrying you along, and
it has taken a little while to figure out that
you need your own tale –
Let’s call it your myth –
And it won’t be the first and unlikely the eleventh,
Where your deepest joy meets the world’s
deepest need, where you
uncover your truest self,
Providing form and presence and potency in
crafted activities and pauses,
Knowing that if you do these things, something
quite marvellous will occur –
Some may even call it magic.

Rise, rise from your bed
There are dreams in the air
Harvest light for days ahead
And shine it everywhere^

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory;
**Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
^Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in.