Seventh Story Circle
Devote yourself to Love. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. The first and last step: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and don’t do unto others what you would not want them to do to you.
the six earlier stories all claimed that the path to peace, security and happiness was about “winning”.
- us over them
- or us overthrowing them
- or us staying apart from them
- or us cleansing ourselves of them
- or us having things that they don’t
- or us being more important than them because of our competitive suffering…
but in the Seventh Story, the story of reconciliation, we still get to win, just not at anybody else’s expense.
in the Seventh Story, human beings are not the protagonist of the world…
Love is.
“This is a Seventh Story Circle, in which we seek to build community, deepen our life’s purpose, share our needs, and live better. Everyone is welcome. We’ll have two rounds of simple questions, and everyone is invited to speak from the heart. We honor confidentiality in this circle – what is said here, stays here, unless we have received the consent of the person to share their story. We use “I” statements – speaking about our own experience, gifts and needs. We don’t interrupt each other, and we also respect each other’s time, by seeking to be concise in our responses. We commit to the common good, to learning the ways of love, in the spirit of sitting on a porch with a wise elder, knowing that we are not alone, someone has already been where we are, and that kindness is waiting around every corner. All it takes is for someone to go first.”
3 Questions
1: What is bringing me life?
2: What is challenging, draining, or deadening me?
3: We are intrigued by the story that the purpose of life is to devote ourselves to love, and to do to and with others what we would like them to do to and with us. We are awakening to the reality that there is no “them and us”, there is only us. In light of this, what is one opportunity I have had since we last met to live this story, and what did I do with that opportunity? What did I learn from it? What would I like to do differently next time? What is an upcoming opportunity I know I will have to live this story, and what would I like to do with it?
Question 4
4: Having heard what we have heard, is there anyone who would like to ask for something from the group, and is there anyone who would like to offer something to anyone in the group?
Acknowledgement
Who are the children of the future? I should like to answer: the people who renounce domination and the dreams of rule, people who are not victorious and to not dream of victories, but who open themselves and their institutions in creative receptivity towards what is divine, towards what is human, and towards what is natural. These people are the heirs of the future.
~Juergen Moltmann