Heroes Not Zombies

William Blake said we can see a world in a grain of sand, so how much world could we see in this one stone?

It was lying on a beach and from the lichen and/or seaweed growing on its surface, it’s clearly been there a long time.

And look at the layers within in the stone. Almost like the rings of a tree…laid down, accumulated, accreted, over decades, centuries even.

What’s the origin story of this one stone? How far has it traveled? How long has it lain on this particular beach?

I’m pretty sure there will be other life within the plant life there…maybe insects, bacteria, viruses….a whole ecosystem of Life.

And without trying to anthropomorphise too much, what stories could this stone tell us, if only it could? What has experienced? How has it changed in response to the events which have occurred around it within the timescale of its own existence?

And what about us?

How have events changed and shaped us? How have we cocreated our unique reality? What stories do we have to tell?

I spent my working life, one to one, with patient after patient, helping them to tell their stories, so that, together we could make sense of their experience. Time and again, they amazed me, they moved me, they intrigued me.

You can indeed see a world in a grain of sand, a whole world in one stone on the beach, a universe in the heart and mind of another.