My New Story by Susan Rooney-Harding

As part of our Blog Series, Living the New Story: Myth, Magic & Miracles, we invited programme participant, Susan Rooney-Harding, to share her personal myth – her new story – as it unfolded throughout our recently completed 8-month journey….

My name is Susan. I live in Adelaide South Australia. This land is Kauna land, and I acknowledge and pay my respect to all elders past, present and emerging. I am fifth generation Australian and am very grateful to call this place home. My ancestors came to South Australia as free settlers from Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. I was born and grew up on Meru land, which is on the banks of the River Murray in South Australia.

I am thankful for all that this land has taught me. She taught me to have deep reciprocity for the earth and all that belong to her. I would listen to the stories that the land would share through the seasons, the rains, the droughts, the life, the death and the rebirth, the abundance and the scarcity. She taught me to feel the land for the Ancestors and to listen for their stories of wisdom and belonging.

It was here I fell in love with story and the power that it has to create connection and change.

I have made my work all about story for the past decades have caught hundreds of stories across Australia in the business I created called The Story Catchers. We use participatory methodologies for analysing story data captured on documentary film, for monitoring and evaluation, social impact measurement and human-centered design and we have also created documentary reports to accompany written reports. At present we work mainly in remote Australia on programs with Australia’s First Nation’s people. I am blessed to spend a lot of my time with these people in country – it feeds my heart and my soul.

I have been drawn to the work of Findhorn over many years and came to experience the community in 2019 when I participated in Experience week. Feeling we are coming to the completion of an old collective story and at the cusp of an emerging new story, I felt a calling to participate in the Living the New Story: Myth, Magic & Miracles programme. And what a beautiful experience it has been.

In the one of the workshops notes, the following quote was shared:

Carl Jung once said – that if the underpinning cultural myth is dying and is no longer adequate for people, then the myth making power resides in individuals, and that the birth of a personal myth in the imagination of one individual or a group of individuals can literally spread and change the world.

After reading this quote, I was inspired to create my own personal myth, a new story from the wisdom that I have embraced from many sources including this workshop and another workshop I have been doing called ‘The Beautiful Leadership Immersion’.

This is my new story….

I am an EdgeWalker.
I walk between worlds and have the ability to build bridges between them.
I am grateful for all the paths I adventure, in the past, in the present and in the future.
I embody what they reveal to me.
I have a strong sense of my inner life and I’m deeply grounded and effective in my external world.

My work and the people that I work with are aligned to my deepest values.
I trust the unfolding of my life and my contribution to this world.

I have the ability to listen, to deeply listen beyond the words that are spoken.

I consciously tune in to a power greater than myself for guidance and inspiration.

I have discernment and make clear and conscious choices. I welcome the seat of my wisdom and my worth.

I embrace my shadows and accept what I can change and what I cannot. I have a deep understanding that my shadows are a key to me gaining greater self awareness and understanding.

I remember and honour my ancestors and I am committed to healing what trauma I can and expressing their love and gifts that I embody. I am committed to being a loving ancestor for all those to come.

I have a profound sense of belonging and interbeing and have deep reciprocity for the earth and all its beings both gross and subtle.

I see the future is beautiful and contribute to this future daily by filling my life with song, music, dance, prayer, meditation, nature, adventure, wonder and magic.

As I bravely walk towards being an elder, I do so with humility and grace and embrace this archetype in becoming the weaver of the dreams for all the grandchildren to come.

Susan is an EdgeWalker who has walked between worlds and has the ability to build bridges between them. She lives in Adelaide South Australia and runs a business called The Story Catchers, which works mainly with Australian First Nations Communities. She is a fifth generation Australian and is very grateful to call this place home.

This reflection forms part of our Blog Series, Living the New Story: Myth, Magic & Miracles. We are deeply grateful to Susan for sharing her new story with our Findhorn New Story Community. Be sure to read our other contributions.

Featured Photo: The Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park which forms part of the traditional country of the Antakirinja Matuntjara Yankunytjatjara people, courtesy Susan Rooney-Harding