Stories make us who we are

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Stories make us who we are. Yes, it’s true. They certainly do. But, we must realize we are so much more than those stories. We must learn to move beyond the stories and just Be. And we must understand – we are NOT our stories. They do not have to define who we are. Each of us has a unique gift, something to share with the world around us. In the hubbub of every day life, sometimes those gifts get lost or buried under all those stories and as a result we can’t find our way.

I really got to thinking about this last night when I was in the walk-in clinic with my husband who tried to take off his thumb at work. Ok, well, it wasn’t quite that bad. But it sure was nasty.

He was holding a granite slab and his boss, who was on the forklift, was getting ready to clamp onto the slab so they could move it around the warehouse. Well, somehow – nobody is quite sure – the clamp grazed his hand, pulling the thumbnail nearly off and causing a hell of a lot of blood. Just before quitting time, of course.

So he got home last night, hand all bandaged up and tried to tough it out. I called my mom (a radiologist) to ask her about meds (he’d taken aspirin which hadn’t put a dent in his discomfort) and she promptly put together a package of gauze and tape and bandage-y type stuff and brought them over. While she was on her way, we rinsed it well with sea salt water and once she got here, we decided he should see a doctor. Mostly because he looked rather peaked and was having trouble processing his thoughts coherently. (I’m guessing he was in a heck of a lot more pain than he let on which is unusual for him because he’s quite the whiner when he’s ill or hurt. )

I guess the admin gals at the front desk thought he looked a bit worse for ware, too, because we were ushered in to see the intake nurse within just a couple of minutes. I hadn’t even finished filling out his paperwork.

Fortunately, since it was obviously draining, there wasn’t a need to drill the nail to release the pressure or anything but because of the clamp situation, he was given a tetanus shot as well as antibiotics. The doctor cleaned it up some more and dressed it all with ointment and a pressure bandage. And he’ll have to change the bandage every day at least once, if not twice, for the next several weeks until the new nail takes form.

Anyway, this all got me to thinking about stories and getting rid of things in our lives which don’t work or changing our course just a little bit so they do. I began thinking how our stories shape how we think, how we feel, what we do (or don’t do) and where our lives ultimately lead.

It became clear to me how my husbands childhood thoroughly affected how he handled the situation. He treated it like one of those, “ignore it and it will go away” things. Not me. I went into what my family calls “fix it mode.”

Now, when I was growing up, my mom was much the same way. She just gets in there and automatically, somehow, knows exactly what needs to be done. No wavering, no worrying, no wondering what should be done. It just gets done. And that’s what I do, too. We don’t freak out, we don’t get upset or angry or emotional. (Until it’s over, anyway!)

I began to wonder what stories made my husband react and act how he did. What caused him to downplay (in his own mind) the severity of the injury and his resistance to doing anything about it. He didn’t even seem to know what nearly anyone who’s ever had any kind of injury knows – to elevate the injured body part.

The good news is – we can learn to get beyond the stories. We can learn to accept that just because a certain thing happened in our past, doesn’t mean we have to continue on that way. We can change our world for the better.

And it starts by realizing that change is possible.

(Stay tuned for part 2.)

Oh – and by the way – I haven’t forgotten about my before and after office pics. Just haven’t had time with all the other fun stuff going on to get them out of the camera. Hopefully this weekend will slow down a bit. Or probably not. It’s my mom’s birthday Sunday.

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.