When I was young, my mother read me bedtime stories. My favourite story was about a boy who didn’t listen to his parents and got caught by an evil man in a hot air balloon. The boy soon was able to throw this man out of the balloon and off he went on an adventure. On his journey, he encountered witches, magicians, demons, monkeys and the cold. However, none of them was able to harm him. In the end the boy, of course, returns back home in the arms of his mother.

As a child I couldn’t get enough of this story about the boy who wasn’t afraid to go on a journey, face those demons and who had seemed to have grown during his journey.

Fairy tales, stories and myths have been told throughout time. They played an important part in the development and growth of people. They carried wisdom. Stories taught human beings about the inner and outer demons and the importance of knowing the light and the darkness in our life.

A recurrent theme in fairy tales is the search of something the main character has lost or wants to find. Only when the main character gets to know and learns about every creature and situation she meets, can she move on and find what she was looking for.

It is often the shadows in our life we run away from. Instead, try to have a dialogue with them. I know it is difficult, but it will get easier. Just as the light also the shadow is part of us and worth knowing.

I am wondering which stories have guided your life? How would your stories look like?

“At critical moments in history mythic sense tries to return to awareness in order to indicate life’s inherent capacity for renewal.”

Michael Meade, “World Behind the World”

You might also want to read:
Do you know who you are?

Image: Some rights reserved by crackdog