Tags
First Nations people, future, future generations, personal power, positive change, resources, sharing your gifts, sustainability, the land, using your voice
A gray, rainy day. Wishing I was at home curled up with a novel in my PJs. The professor looked around the room at vacant faces and asked, “What will you do for the people to be?”
The people to be are the ones to come after us who are not yet here. First Nations people call them the seventh generation. The land does not belong to us, it belongs to them, and we are only here to take care of it for the time being. We are to ensure that the abundance and beauty of the land remain for those to come. This belief speaks volumes about respect. Respect for the land that sustains us, and respect for all other living beings. For without it, we are all forever lost.
The question awakened me. What do I have to offer to the world? I didn’t know what my answer was at first.
But then a voice whispered in my mind three words: Love, truth and storyteller.
Then I felt my throat get tight. I couldn’t possibly say that in front of a room full of people. They would laugh, they would not understand. But then I realized my pounding heart and sweaty palms had nothing to do with them. I was scared to own what was mine, what I had to offer the world. That would make me horribly vulnerable.
But you can’t connect without being vulnerable.
I am a storyteller who writes the truth with love. Truth is scary and ugly sometimes. But love softens it, moulds it into something broken but still beautiful. What will I do for the people to be? Write. And hope that somehow my words make the world a better place for the people now and for the people to come. We are only safe guarding our home, after all.
What will YOU do for the people to be?
Love, truth and storyteller. -this beauty of you is deeper than you know and the lives you touch with your words will coninue.
Thank you, Suzi, for your kindness and encouragement.
“Truth is scary and ugly sometimes. But love softens it, moulds it into something broken but still beautiful.” This is perfect.
Thank you, Melissa : )
This is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Part of me wants to steal it as my own creed…but then I think I have my own. I just haven’t had it put into words yet. But I will. Because the people to be matter much.
Thank you. You will find the words, Melody. They’ll jump out at you at the most unlikely moment : )
I want to inspire people to be the best that they can be and I walk my talk caring for the earth and teaching people about organic foods and healthy cooking, recycling, and living buildings. I have worked hard to teach others how to think and communicate well.
Nice post…good statement and journey ahead revealed
Wonderful, Patricia. I love how clearly you assert your own gifts.
And your writing will be a gift to the people to come.
Thank you, Dawn. I hope so!
What a powerful question, there is so much responsibility to that. But its something worth thinking about. Yes, indeed your writing will have definitely leave a mark to those who will come after this generation.
I am always grateful for your posts, this one in particular is echoing something I am going through in my life at the moment.
I’ll be asking myself this same question and hope I am clear with my answer as you are.
It always means the world to me to hear that you’ve caught echoes in your life from mine. It’s why I love to write. Good luck on the journey…you know, its the questions that we ask ourselves that are most important, not necessarily the answer.
I love this.
Thank you, Heather!
You *own* your words and they are your strength. Lucky the generations that will read them in the future. And I know you will share your thoughts and wisdom in powerful ways.
Thank you dearly, Lisa. I was talking to a friend about how its funny that everyone else always seems to have more faith in us than we do for ourselves. Finding that faith in ourselves…that’s magic.
Ah, Brown Paper Bag Girl, I’ve missed you. You’re absolutely right – it’s incredible scary to own that these are the gifts you bring to the world. They’re so personal in nature that putting them out there for the world to see is, understandably, alarming and will definitely make you vulnerable. But as you say – it’s necessary to be so in order to connect.
I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that you really do keep writing and sharing your love and truth.
I have missed you too, my dear. Lovely to see your face over here! Thank you for your words, I love how whatever one needs to hear has a way of finding them…I’ll be a life long writer, promise : )
“I was scared to own what was mine, what I had to offer the world.”
I get that. I really, really get that. But if anyone can be an amazing, heartfelt storyteller, it is you.
Thank you dearly, Kenz. Often its our own light that we fear, which is funny.
This is such a touching text, which almost brought tears to my eyes. Well done for admitting what is in your soul, what it is that you can give to the universe, now and forever. Keep writing, because you do it beautifully!
Thank you for your kind words
It always means so much to me to hear that people connect with my writing.