Everyone you meet has a story. They may have had good or bad experiences, hard or joyful memories, and all of this makes up their life story – or at least the story they choose to tell. Our stories are funny things this way. When we decide to take a good or bad experience and weave it into our story it takes on a new life of its own.
I knew a person who thought that they were perpetually unlucky. They saw every red light, traffic jam, and missed opportunity as a sign that the universe was against them. They lived with cynicism and a sense that nothing could change. I knew another person who faced daily hardships and yet found ways to sing and laugh through it all. Their story was no less painful and yet they stepped forward preparing for the best.
These stories, or narratives, are like a record we play in our minds. They are the soundtrack to our emotions, our beliefs, and our ambitions. When we tell ourselves a narrative of mistrust, betrayal, anger, and fear we will live out of that story and expect that every new page will tell that same story. However when we live out of a narrative that says we are fundamentally loved, never forgotten, and that hope is a gift that we’ve been given, then we tell that story with our lives and extend that narrative to include others.
Our neighbourhoods also have a story that is told in the lives of the people who live along our streets, in our condos, or our cul-de-sacs. Some stories have not yet been told as families come together and build new lives close to each other. Some stories are well established and have set in motion a narrative that feels hard to change. We have all heard murmurs of neighbourhood stories; “Oh, that neighbourhood is where all of ‘those’ people live, I’d never live there,” and “I hear that street is really friendly, but there are too many kids.” Around every corner and along every street are the signs of neighbourhood stories, for better or worse.
Neighbourhood stories write themselves over time. A series of thefts might pigeon hole a neighbourhood as the “crime neighbourhood” or big houses might make people think that it is a rich and selfish neighbourhood. But the best neighbourhood stories are not written by themselves or by accident. They are told intentionally by ordinary people who choose to write a chapter in their neighbourhood’s story. My neighbourhood story, which is still very new, has a chapter on soap box derbies, another on bees and gardens, and yet another on kids and block parties. Your neighbourhood story might have a section on Christmas gatherings, house concerts, rained out garage sales and the best baby sitters.
The narrative of our neighbourhood is not yet completely written. You have an exciting role to play in creating an amazing story for your street and community. You can be your neighbourhood’s story teller. You can tell a bleak story of brokenness and inevitable decline, or you can turn the page and begin to tell a new story. Every neighbourhood has a story. What story will you tell?
