FINDING YOUR STORY

I reached into the open bookcase. I couldn’t read the title on the binding, but I could see the particular book I wanted.  I pulled it off the shelf and laid it in the crook of my arm.  It was Joseph Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time.  I hadn’t gotten further than the first page before I found this gem:  "Getting into harmony and tune with the universe and staying there is the principal function of mythology."  At last, a simple explanation for my fascination with myths and legends.

Being out of “harmony and tune with the universe” is not a pleasant feeling.  It’s when your life seems to be running you and you find yourself making decisions based on what you think you should do.  It’s when the concept of believing in yourself and knowing what you were meant to do has not yet risen within you.  It’s when religion doesn’t work and faith isn’t happening and nothing, absolutely nothing, in life makes any sense. 

At such a point in my life, I was grateful to find a story that pulled me out of that funk. Who hasn’t been comforted by a good story?  The one I was thankful to come across is the Legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.  I read it after I went to visit a buffalo that had been born white.  A White Buffalo is a sacred symbol to Native American people.  Knowing the Legend makes it possible to understand why Native people consider the animal holy.  I wasn’t raised in the Native American tradition; yet this story spoke to me like none other. 

In Native American belief, the birth of a White Buffalo symbolizes a time for unity among races. For individuals it’s a call to reconnect with traditional faith practices.   Reading the legend, I was reminded of my love for the earth and the role I had to play in society.  And reading Campbell’s work leads me to greater understanding of the role stories have played for people in all societies.  He does much more than tell good stories, he calls to mind the reasons we’re going to agree what the best ones are.  A classic will move us as individuals when it emphasizes elements all of us --members of the world society -- have in common.

I hadn’t planned on book shopping the day I and a couple of friends rode out to the Light Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina.  We were going to the meditation dome before going out for lunch.  On the way upstairs, I stopped by the bookcase and pulled open the glass door. And there it was nestled between dozens of others – just the read I needed to find.

Anyone else have a story about finding a good story at just the right time?