Making Up A Different Story

A friend of mine recently told me about an incident she witnessed at the grocery store a couple of days before Easter weekend. She happened to be in line behind a woman who purchased almost $100 worth of candy using her food stamps. My friend was concerned about how quickly she had passed judgment on the woman, and then of course she was judging herself for being judgmental. So I asked, "what was the story you made up about this woman?" And with the question I had to ask myself, if I had been standing in line behind this woman, would I have been critical of her behavior? What about you? What was your first reaction to hearing about the candy and the food stamps? Did you make up a story?

My friend said all sorts of things had gone through her mind. Wasn’t the woman intelligent enough to know that if all the food stamp money for the month was spent on candy she would have none left with which to buy food? And how dare a person on public assistance misuse the money on candy? Wasn’t it supposed to be used for food? Obviously this woman didn’t have good judgment—and that might even be the very reason she needed to be on food stamps; in fact, she probably came from a family with a long history of being on public assistance.....

And so the story went.

I stopped my friend and said, "What a great story you have just made up—and a pretty negative one at that. Since we are all good at making up stories, let’s make up a different one for this woman and her candy: something completely opposite and perhaps positive."

So here is my story.

The woman who bought the candy belongs to a local church that serves a very poor community in the city. It being Easter, she wanted to do something special for the children in the church. The most loving and generous thing she could do was to use all of her food stamp money to buy candy and then trust and have faith her needs would be taken care of the rest of the month. What an amazingly wise woman.

If you were to make up a story, what would it be?

Maybe when we are so quick to judge ourselves for being so quick to judge others, what we are actually doing is judging the stories we make up. So then making up a different story could be a very useful tool. How often when faced with making a choice or a decision have I made up a story about what might happen and what could happen or even what I believe will happen? And how often is the story negative? What would happen if each time I caught myself making up a story I stopped, took a breath and made up a completely different story—perhaps an opposite or a positive one?

If it is true that we create our lives from our thoughts, then making up a different story could change the world.

That’s my story.

Ingrid

Ingrid Kincaid is an internationally known storyteller, teacher and spiritual mentor. She is an intuitive reader of ancient runes. She gently shows her clients how to tap into their own inner wisdom by weaving together creativity, spirituality and ancient knowing. Ingrid is available for interviews, private consultations and group presentations. You can contact her at ingk@ingridkincaid.com or 415.652.3990.