Using the language of the cosmic egg, author Felicia Murrell shares her experience of growing up with a strong sense of our story that was limited by the power of other stories:
I never questioned the world in which I grew up. I followed the rhythms set for me by those around me, understanding the world and how to situate myself in it through the lenses and lives of those in authority over me.… In the small rural North Carolina town of my youth, Blacks lived on one side of the tracks and Whites on the other…. Nothing about this life seemed abnormal. This was our story.…
No one talked about race. No one expressed discontent or named things aloud. No one mentioned the way things were. We didn’t buck the system. We kept our heads down and did what we were supposed to do. Success and advancement were others’ stories, for people across town on the other side of the tracks. We were to stay in our place and follow the natural order of things, which I did until I no longer could.
Like matryoshka dolls nesting within one another, my story as a small child was a fragmented, compartmentalized part of our story. In the shadow of dominant voices, my story felt less essential, even unnecessary. Without a clear understanding of the whole, my story was incomplete. But my story was all I knew until I was exposed to other stories.
Murrell highlights the importance of allowing other stories to draw us into intimacy with one another and into the union of the story.
When we remain stuck in the loop of our story without consideration of other stories, particularly when “our” is framed in (or lived in response to) a Eurocentric, patriarchal, dominant paradigm as the standard of measurement for all other stories, we are left with an incomplete model. Exposure to other stories is an invitation, a gateway to knowing. But it’s merely that—an opportunity to know. A welcoming and acceptance of diversity may create familiarity, but it’s not the same as knowing. Deep, intimate knowing empowers agency, offers reciprocity, and, through mutuality, affords us the opportunity to be the custodians of our own story without being othered as an aside or a concession to dissent….
How do we move toward each other in love, the truth of our authentic power? Perhaps, we welcome change instead of resisting it. To expand my worldview beyond the paradigm of Southern, Christian, rural or working poor to a larger cosmic frame that is inclusive, universal, affirming, and accepting, I needed to see the parts and the whole in all their majestic splendor and their messy complexity.
Transcendence is not a denial or detachment from my story or our story. It is an arduous commitment to truth-telling; to fully seeing; to empathetic listening that requires the work of living and be-ing in the world; of deep, intimate knowing; of moving beyond our theories and maps into relationship building.
Reference:
Felicia Murrell, “Gateway to Knowing,” ONEING 9, no. 2, The Cosmic Egg (2021): 77, 78, 79, 80, 82–83. Available in print and PDF download.
Image credit and inspiration: Priscilla Du Preez, Untitled (detail), 2020, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. With our energy and effort, we treat the stories of others as sacred and worthy of our time and attention, like our own.
Story from Our Community:
I have learned to rely on God’s grace to help me daily, even with the most mundane things. God has taught me to rejoice, appreciate, and engage in a happy dance for God’s simple responses I receive for my prayers. This way, I can find joy even during struggles.
—Christy L.
