So here we go again…another year under a considerably broader belt 😉 Isn’t it wonderful how the years have been expansive in addition to everything else?
I had thought of what I wanted to say and it was pretty much the same stuff I say every year around this time. Then an hour ago, I listened to this talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie entitled The Danger of a Single Story and she blew me away with her eloquence and the simple lucidity with which she articulated her thoughts. She was brilliant and the subject matter intriguing. She talks about how we cannot know a place or a person unless we know all their stories – and there are many. How we can dispossess and diminish people by concentrating on just one of their stories, when empowerment and humanity are just another story away. What she said isn’t new, but the way she said it was powerful and I listened spellbound. She’s a fantastic storyteller. If you have a few minutes, give her a listen. You won’t regret it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
And so naturally I began to think of all the different stories that make me who I am today and that continue to evolve around and within me shaping my tomorrows. There are ongoing sagas and a million short stories. There is poetry and farce. It’s part soap-opera and part fairy tale. And at the very heart of it all is me – just another little speck of dust whirling away in the Big U – following my own orbit and trying to figure out ‘What Next? What’s the next story?’
And I find myself asking that now – what is that next story? But it’s mostly rhetoric, you know what I mean? It’s what makes this journey exciting – the not-knowing! So although there are a few stories that even now are unfolding and others that lie nascent – all I want to do today is be thankful for all of them. And I want to thank my friends and my family for allowing me into their lives, their hearts and their stories – cause that is what I am – the product of a million different tales. I am honoured and I am grateful. It’s been wonderful and it’s been worth it 😀
And if you still haven’t wished me – well that’s a whole ‘nother story 😉 😛
Have a Happy Day People ❤
Here’s to Stories & Storytellers everywhere 🙂
H is for Happiness 