#2: Stories

What story about our world is no longer serving us?

(This post was originally shared in my love/news-letter, Our Common Future)

Story (noun): an account of past events in someone’s life or in the development of something / a particular person’s representation of the facts of a matter.

“We think we tell stories, but stories often tell us, tell us to love or hate, to see or be seen. Often, too often, stories saddle us, ride us, whip us onward, tell us what to do, and we do it without questioning. The task of learning to be free requires learning to hear them, to question them, to pause and hear silence, to name them, and then become a story-teller.” — Rebecca Solnit (writer, historian, activist, all time fave 💗)

Stories are how we make sense of the world around us, and from where I am sitting a great deal of the stories we are currently telling are broken. They are ‘horror stories’ (to borrow a term from Stories for Life). We are separate from each other. We are separate from nature. Productivity is success. 😔 What might be different if we told ‘love stories’ instead?

For me, one motivation for starting this little love letter, was to serve as gentle encouragement to question the stories I am relying on. This week that looked like considering, what my life would be like if I acted as if nature was my family, and wellbeing was my metric for success.

What different decisions might I make about how or where I spend my time? How might those decisions feel differently in my body?

I know I would work less, I’d spend more time outside, I’d notice the seasons, and take longer walks whilst remembering to not always wear my headphones. I’d look up more.

and if we lived in a world that encouraged these love stories, how might that change the future we all share?

With love, curiousity, and in community,
Stella 🌟

This week I have been inspired by:

• Stories for Life have been exploring the question ‘How might our stories help design an Economy in Service to Life?’ — they have created a beautiful and far-reaching website to share their reflections. Check out the Inspiration pagefor a library which will keep you going with mind-expanding resources until at least Christmas.
• Beau Miles, global adventurer turned ‘backyard adventurer’ YouTuber. In his latest video Beau kayaked to work, a commute that normally takes 45 mins by car took him four days. Not only is Beau an epic storyteller, whose video are of cinematic quality, I am always inspired by his commitment to finding adventure within a few miles of his home and wonder in every day. A beautiful re-telling of the story of adventure and travel.
• On Being is one of my most favourite things (yes, that’s right — favourite things, not just favourite podcasts). The front page of their website says

‘Pursuing deep thinking and moral imagination, social courage and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.’ ❤️

That sounds like my kind of party. Recently I have enjoyed the episodes with Alex Elle (Self care advocate & Instagram mega-star) and the writer Ocean Vuong (if you haven’t read On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, it will break your heart and feed your soul). These words are everything. ✨

“I want to love more than death can harm. And I want to tell you this often: That despite being so human and so terrified, here, standing on this unfinished staircase to nowhere and everywhere, surrounded by the cold and starless night — we can live. And we will.” — Ocean Vuong

This week I have been reading:

The Great Derangement — Climate Change and the Unthinkable — Amitav Ghosh — What will future generations say about us? Will they think we were deranged? Acclaimed Indian novelist, Amitav Ghosh, examines our inability to grasp the scale and violence of climate change, and the impact of this detachment on our actions. In the first chapter, aptly titled ‘Stories’, Ghosh questions the lack of near-future climate change fiction, noting how those authors who do cover our impending reality are often categorised as ‘science fiction’ — granting permission to the reader to consume their narratives with lightness and to turn away from this reality.

When I bought this book the bookseller told me two things — that the first chapter had ‘changed her world view forever’ and that she’d immediately bought copies for the shop, because she wanted to ‘do everything she could to get everyone to read it’. I couldn’t have said it better myself. 🌈

New perspectives in poetry

some people⁣

when they hear⁣

your story.⁣

contract.⁣

others⁣

upon hearing⁣

your story,⁣

expand.⁣

and⁣

this is how⁣

you⁣

know.⁣

— nayyirah waheed⁣

Written with gratitude for two days in London, where a tiny crack appeared and I caught a glimpse into the future (or was it the past?) and Gemma Brady who opened the storytelling door to me and shared her own stories with me so generously. ⭕️