“Negative thinking may produce conditions which appear to be true, but these results have no power, no reality, except as given power BY OUR BELIEVING THAT THE APPEARANCE IS THE ACTUALITY..”
~ Ernest Holmes
Here we are at Christmastime, filled with stories from our pasts, and ideas of the future, layered with expectations, promises, and hopes of happiness. Some people are surrounded by family and friends, while others are alone. I find it curious that we, as a culture, put so much pressure on this time of year… but, because we do, this makes the holiday season a perfect opportunity to practice our skills in determining ‘facts versus stories’.
Many years ago, when I first began building this entity called, The Centre for Inspired Living, on Quadra Island and in Campbell River, I used this time of year to reveal historical stories about traditional practices, brought forward in service of this celebration called Christmas. Here is one such example:
“The history of Christmas trees goes back to the symbolic use of evergreens in ancient Egypt and Rome, and continues with the German tradition of candlelit Christmas trees, first brought to America in the 1800s…. Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year held special meaning for people. Much as people today decorate their homes with pine, spruce and fir trees during the festive season, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries, it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness.”
The link provided above is only one source for stories! I am certain you can find many more. There are stories about mistletoe, Christmas lights, Yule logs, stockings, gingerbread houses and even ugly Christmas sweaters!! (What? That is a tradition?!). Sometimes, in those early days of our centre, there were those people participating in our Solstice events who were angered by some of my revelations. They were determined to believe that their perspective was aligned with a ‘one and only’ truth.
So what are ‘facts’? In the book,The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, the writers describe facts this way:
“Facts are objective data, what a video camera would record. If you look at a video of a meeting, it contains sounds and images. It records words being spoken, including tone, inflection and volume. It also records gestures, body language and facial expressions. All of these are facts. Facts are unarguable. They are just what happened, without any meaning.”
(Boring old facts! But, the upside is, looking at facts rather than the stories we make up about them, helps us to truly see ‘what IS’).
Stories, on the other hand, according to The 15 Commitments, are as follows:
“…interpretations of the facts. Stories include all judgments, opinions and beliefs that we derive from the facts. The way the mind works is that it takes in facts/data, and then it makes up stories about the facts. All stories are made up. They are not TRUE. They are simply the way we see the world.”
What a rich and wonderful world of stories we are all a part of! We are actors on the stage of life, in a dance together, weaving our experiences. Sometimes the dance feels glorious and light; other times it feels heavy and depressing, but under it all is ‘One Divine Truth’. That is a fact.
Think of gravity. We use it in so many ways. It pulls us down a hill on a toboggan or it can crush a village under an avalanche. The facts are the “IS-ness" of each experience (and the effects of gravity in each of the stated cases). The ‘drama’ comes from the stories we write about the events. (One only has to watch TV news to learn about drama!)
Remember, the facts are things such as:
I woke from sleep and opened my eyes at 7:43 am.
Fresh snow is on the ground.
The fire in the wood stove is glowing as coals.
There are pears in my refrigerator.
The temperature outside is -2˚C.
I have a wool sweater.
My Nanny knit my sweater.
My story from these facts could be:
The kids woke me up at 7:43 am.
Ugh, I have to shovel the driveway again because I am the only one who will ever do it.
There is nothing to eat, and it is frickin’ cold outside.
My sweater is itchy and so ugly, I have nothing warm to wear.
Together we are writing the story of Christmas 2022. Each of us is the master of their own destiny. Our greatest desire awaits us, but it is up to us to stop the waiting. The path we choose to create is one of our own make and measure. We have the power to create in each and every moment. What is the story you will write this holiday season?
~ What story are you writing this holiday season? ~ Are you enjoying the chapters you have manifested so far?
~ What do you choose to focus on that will make the next chapter a real page turner?
~ If you’d like to learn some tools for uplevelling your storytelling and manifestation in 2023, we have classes and events we encourage you to check out: Follow this link for more info