A Backward View

Where are the stories in your life? Are they at the center? At a place where they are obvious, easily seen, where you are always aware of them but where they have become so common that are taken for granted or become invisible.

What if the best stories of your life were subsumed under the actions of daily life where purposely finding them seems like you’ve got to start walking backward to see where you’re going?

An interesting thing happens when you start walking backward. The people behind you can't tell you're walking backward; they see only your back. You’re obviously walking forward. What kind of fool would be walking backward? Toward them.

They forget you’re there. Then suddenly you’ve become their story. The story of the strange person walking backward when everyone else is walking forward. The backward walker who ran into them quizzically frightening them with such an unusual walk.

Finding the stories in your life may require walking backward in the search for creativity. Walk backward so both you and the new ideas are surprised by the contact. So, the contact is disruptive, agitating the calm of walking backward when your view is where you have been, not where you’re going.

Great stories appear when our experiences collide with the unknown, revealing new insights. How often do we find that the most enlightening moments are those that catch us completely off guard, challenging our views and enriching our narrative?

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