Once Upon a Time: Being Transformed One Word at A Time

Listening to Episode 103 of the podcast “The Creative Playground” which is presented by Terry Price, one of our frequent visitors and readers for the Vespers and All That Jazz service we hold weekly at Scarritt Bennett Center, I was encouraged to write beginning with the prompt “Once Upon a Time.” While this is something of a stream of conscious invitation to engage creatively, I consider this invitation to be a blessed opportunity by way of writing as a spiritual practice. I find that there is something about writing that transforms thoughts and understanding like nothing else.

Taking Terry’s lead, I invite you to write a “Once upon a time…” story as well. Consider even doing so as a prayer. Should it prove a helpful exploration for you, I offer you my own stream of conscious writing on this prompt that you might read along, explore the dips, twists, and turns of my mind as I offer you some prayerful reflection beginning with that oh so common beginning to many stories around the world. I’m not sure where this story will go, yet I know the mysteries of the divine are sure to show up and transform my heart and mind for the good and prayerfully yours as well.

The Story

Once upon a time, I met a beautiful soul, a person who just by being there encouraged feelings of wonder and awe to surface by way of goosebumps to the skin.
 Oh, how I wish I could be that, so happy, so full, so lovely beyond measure so much so that it overflows into everyone around them. My Lord, this is my prayer. Help me to be like this. Help me to see hope, possibility, positivity in any circumstance, relationships and places of existence on this earth. 
Maybe this is unreasonable?  Maybe I should not have such a lofty goal. Maybe such joy is actually rare or impossible and we are all destined to feel pain and struggle and hurt and sadness and just meh more often than not. I really hope that is not the case. I really hope that my story is more joy and love and happiness in appreciation for even the littlest of joyful tidbits of life.

Once upon a time, that soul I mentioned showed up in my life and I think it is to teach me what is real, what is possible. Yeah, present tense. It is a “now” thing, though it was a past introduction. This soul is still teaching me even in my memory. Even in the briefest of conversations oh so many years apart. Even when it seems like a call lasts forever yet is just a blip in time in the scheme of things. The past moment was the beginning of changing so much within me just because of how “the greatness within,” as the author of The Book of Longings puts it touched the greatness within me, and I was forever changed.
 May we all be so great. In fact, we are so great and I bet we just didn’t realize it. So, more than just being that soul for someone else, may I tell others that they have been that soul for me. May I never keep that sustaining joy of the Holy Spirit at work through one person’s story as it touched and informed my story even to this day to myself.

Once upon a time, inspiration traveled from one creative being with a heart and love for God and others into me. I hope that inspiration grows, spreads wings, touches others, and doesn’t find me a limiting factor so much as a conduit for transformation around the world and beyond this world.

Author: Linda Furtado
Original Artwork: Linda Furtado

Linda Furtado is the Director of Spirituality and Arts at Scarritt Bennett Center and leads our Soul Work program. For more information, please email lfurtado@scarrittbennett.org.