picture in my mind

Finished a wonderful two-day course about play and narratives and the power of telling stories
with Dr. Carol Westby, a speechie in her 70s (I think...). It's amazing, her lifetime of work.

And she shared so much about the power of stories;
why is it that everything seems to confirm and correlate and corroborate
with everything else in my life at the moment?

I even wanted to re-post this TED talk about the danger of the single story

and she shared this with everyone today too!

And there's this as well:

What was I complaining about, feeling alienated? (Subhanallah.)

Frak, a lot of people feel that way, S. Let's be brave.

A lot of these people turned out amazing.

Meeting so many of my ex-classmates and speechies I know reminds me of the moments of belonging that I felt -- and it's true what Brene Brown and Maya Angelou were getting at -- those moments of belonging, it's not that I finally found people who were similar to me. It's that I cared not about my difference, we cared not at all about our differences; we were united because of the same human purpose. And while not many spaces can afford us this beautiful experience, I would do well to remember that it's not about eliminating difference, it's about embracing it fully and celebrating everyone's uniqueness. (I'm still learning, I'm still learning.) My SLP class -- we were all different but we were all accepting and kind and celebrated each other. It was such a healthy and beautiful space. I still love that group of people to this day. 

And I will not just have windows, but mirrors on my bookshelf too.

Maybe I'll try to read some local literature.

Chithra was sharing at the end of today something that resonated with so many of us (and why we speechies love doing our work; not least because we learn so much about ourselves and about the nature of humanity):

"When I first became a speech therapist, I thought I'd be helping people to talk. But then I realise... a lot of people could talk but could not relate. And then later I learnt, what they needed to do before they could relate was to connect. And before they could connect, they had to be coherent."

All of us need to create coherent life stories to live well. Have you told yourself your life story? Is it a good one?

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." -- Maya Angelou