Writing the New Story
Jul 15, 2026Recently I returned to Wisdom Tree Collective for a Centering Prayer meditation. Kasey Hitt posted Michael Blumenthal's poem The New Story of Your Life.
One line has stayed with me: "Deep down in some long-encumbered self, it is the story you have been writing all of your life."
Many of us carry stories that were written long before we had any say in them. Unfortunate stories shaped by loss, disappointment, fear, or the expectations of others. We may become so familiar with these narratives that we mistake them as part of our identity. We begin to believe that our wounds are the whole story. Or the wounds keep us from looking too deeply into the full truth.
But what if our wounds are only the opening chapters?
The contemplative path invites us to listen beneath the loudest voices of our history. It asks us to notice the quiet movements of grace that have been present all along. In silence, prayer, therapy, friendship, and even heartbreak, another story slowly emerges. It's not one that denies suffering, but one that reminds us that healing is possible, that growth is already unfolding within us, and that we are not alone as we move toward wholeness.
This new story isn't about becoming someone else. It's about becoming more fully ourselves. It asks us to plant gardens within the midst of old grievances. We adapt and learn new skills of love, forgiveness, courage, and presence. To trust that the truest self God is calling forth has never been erased, only waiting to be uncovered.
There is no magical moment when everything changes. It's a progression. Sometimes gentle, sometimes turmultuous. The new story is written one choice at a time: each act of kindness toward ourselves, each boundary we honor, each risk we take to love again, each moment we refuse to believe that our past determines our future. Hope prevails.
As Blumenthal suggests, there comes a time to leave "the bleak island of your old story" and begin the journey home. Home is not a place where nothing difficult ever happens. It is the place where we live from our deepest truth rather than our deepest wounds.
What story are you writing today? And what chapter is waiting to begin?
Reflection Questions
- What story about yourself have you outgrown?
- What experiences have quietly revealed a deeper, truer self?
- If fear were no longer holding the pen, what would the next chapter of your life sound like?
Katie Rea, WTC Graduate and Writing Coach
The poem:
The New Story of Your Life
Say you have finally invented a new story
of your life. It is not the story of your defeat
or of your impotence and powerlessness
before the large forces of wind and accident.
It is not the sad story of your mother’s death
or of your abandoned childhood. It is not,
even, a story that will win you the deep
initial sympathies of the benevolent goddesses
or the care of the generous, but it is a story
that requires of you a large thrust
into the difficult life, a sense of plenitude
entirely your own. Whatever the story is,
it goes as it goes, and there are vicissitudes
in it, gardens that need to be planted,
skills sown, the long hard labors
of prose and enduring love. Deep down
in some long-encumbered self,
it is the story you have been writing
all of your life, where no Calypso holds you
against your own willfulness,
where there are no longer dark caves
for you to be imprisoned in,
where you can rise
from the bleak island of your old story
and tread your way home.
-by Michael Blumenthal
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