Seen, Heard and Understood | Finding Meaningful Connection Through Story | by Karletta Marie | Inspiring Story #254

Eleven squares, with eleven beautiful faces. A colourful patchwork of animated portraits looking at each other across the screen. Different people from different countries and continents, spanning Africa to Asia. Europe to America …

Not long into our gathering, something happens for the first time.

Ghazala, one of our Circle members from Pakistan, begins to read our opening statement in her mother tongue, Urdu.

… We gather with people from different countries, faiths, backgrounds, and life stages.

We show up for one another, not because we are the same, but because we value our differences. Together, we listen with kindness and care, without fixing, advising, or preaching. We witness one another’s stories with honour and respect, and speak from our own experience, if and when we wish. Each of us is welcome exactly as we are…

Until now, our statement has always been read in English.

As Ghazala reads, we see the words in English but hear the melody of a language unfamiliar to us.

A broad smile sweeps through my body, stretching inside out, until it settles on my eyes. My face to theirs.
Some faces smile back gently. Some people lean in, while others nod.

My gosh. Look at us here, I think to myself. We don’t understand a word being spoken, yet we understand the meaning so completely.

That same statement could be shared in English, Urdu, Greek, Vietnamese, Swahili, Tagalog, Tamil, Hebrew, Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali... No matter the language spoken, the meaning remains the same, perhaps even deeper.

When I first started Story Circle, I didn’t know who would join, or whether people who had come to  read stories would want to gather in this way. Would they want to connect more deeply, to listen, witness and share with people they had never met?

Well, here we are.

A happy group sitting together, each of us saying yes to our Circle Statement. We know why we have gathered. It is an agreement between us all.

The idea to read our Statement in our different mother tongues came from Sasha, one of our dear Circle members. She describes the moment beautifully:

“There was a sense of all of us being part of the same energy - all of us united as one. This is what will propel peace.”

And as I look around our virtual room, I love seeing who’s gathered.

Though small in number, this Circle has a huge arm span.  Not just in distance, but in the amount of love it can hold in sixty minutes each month.

We have teachers, writers, mothers, speakers, therapists, coaches, healers, bookkeepers, business owners and community leaders ... people with very different lives and experiences.

And I ask myself, where else could I regularly sit among such a rich, diverse group of people who are willing to go deep into their stories and the meanings we make from them?

I’m hungry for more connection like this. And I know others are too.

I see it in the people who come to Daily Inspired Life. People who want to be inspired, to see the compassion in humanity, and to go deeper in their understanding of each other.

There’s a longing for something deeper...

To move beyond surface conversation about so-and-so did this, so-and-so did that, celebrity gossip, or the latest fad telling us what we should or shouldn’t be doing...

To be properly seen and heard.
To see someone like we’ve never seen them before.  
To have a question raised we haven’t asked ourselves before.  
To let something shift in the way we see another person, or ourselves.
To think about the lives we choose to live and the meaning we make from our experiences.

And that’s exactly what’s happening in this little patch of the internet.

Over the past six months, I’ve watched people encourage one another, make meaning out of difficult experiences, grow in confidence, find their voice and form genuine friendships across borders.

Together, these eleven beautiful faces may look like a small gathering, yet what they are creating is anything but small.

People from different countries, faiths, cultures and life experiences are choosing to listen to one another with care, honour each other’s stories, and leave understanding one another a little more deeply than when we arrived.

In a world where our differences can so easily pull us apart, here they are drawing us closer.
Here we are seen, heard and understood.

And to me, that is something incredibly beautiful.

Want to join our Story Circle?

Join this uplifting space where people from around the globe come together to share real-life stories, reflect, and grow together.

If this story resonated with you, you’re warmly invited to join us in Story Circle.

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