In the story of your life, what is the narrative thread that holds it all together? What is the one constant?

Question

Is there any one thing (or more than one thing) that has remained consistent/constant or reliable throughout your life?

Answer 1

Heartache. It sounds like a bad thing and I wouldn't have picked it, but I've gone through my life with a broken heart. It is a condition that is survivable. You can used to anything.
C. :)!!

Answer 2

A lot of things which at the time seemed very important, even critical, have come and gone.

I think really two drives have been a constant. The drive and need to understand, to make patterns, to find sense, to know truth and name it.

The other is a desire and drive to make a difference, which has sat since fairly early childhood, and has been sublime, egocentric, sometimes vain, sometimes connected in a deep and spiritual way. For all the different ways it has expressed itself, for all the hypocrisies I own, and the kindnesses I have done, and the stupidities, it has been there as a constant for a great deal of time.

Those are the narrative threads.

The constants are family, and a core inner knowing that love is not confined. That we are vessels which fill with the divine when we open our hearts to it, and there is no judgment, no moral, no sense of time, but the utter certainty of creative universal consciousness throughout everything.

Answer 3

The seeking. It seems that ever since I was small I have been searching for one thing or another. And of course whenever I think I have found it, I realize that there is something else I still really need to find. I've come to understand that it is the quest that I enjoy - the thing being sought is really just an excuse to do the seeking. It's taken me lots of interesting places on many different levels. And I'm still searching. Hope I always will be.

Answer 4

Very interesting question!

Unavailable's post about her mother is not the slightest bit "cheesy". It got me thinking about my own mother, who is probably the most important unifying thread in my life.

Like others, I have had many upheavals and changes in my life, and at times I have also felt that change was the only constant. But yes, my mother has always been important, though not always in a positive way. We were not close when I was young, through no fault of hers, just because we had profound differences. But she has always been available when I needed her, and really saved my bacon mentally a couple of times.

Another constant has been my interest in writing and literature generally.

Answer 5

Nothing about my life has ever been constant, except I suppose chaos and self-defeating behavior, but even that has changed in the last two years. I suppose what remains constant has been something internal...something I can't quite define....something like an inner light that's never been completely burnt out, no matter what kinds of things I've been through, or put myself through. I suppose it's a burning desire to rise above whatever obstacles life puts in front of me (or I put in front of myself)...from a humanistic psychology perspective, it could be viewed as the deep, inner desire to reach self-actualization.

Answer 6

great question.
1. Moving. I have moved about every 4 years of my life (sometimes more often, once 5 years in one place!). Now I feel the need to move again.
2. God. He's always there.
3. Idealistic or romantic nature. Well, sometimes my idealism gets choked by materialism or overwork, etc.

Answer 7

Gorilla Glue

Answer 8

Up to age 18 the theme of my life was severe abuse (physical/sexual/emotional). Life was all about tragedy/pain.When I'd had enough I decided to kill myself. I made my plan, but called a crisis line (I'd looked for help before I chose suicide). That call led me to some people who shared their relationship with God with me. On Oct. 21, 1971, I prayed for the first time. Since then the narrative theme of my life has been the life of Jesus in my life. He has been the force for love and good that overcame my desire to self-destruct in the face of cruelty/perversion. For 37 years he has been my rock, never shifting even when I spent some years as a prescription drug abuser/addict or when I suffered from depression. Everything in my life touches on or filters through my love relationship with Jesus Christ, my God.

Answer 9

Throughout my life my circumstances have always swung from one extreme to another. I can always be optimistic and feel fortunate because no matter how bad things get I seem to very lucky since things usually work out for me, even if just at the last minute.

Answer 10

my relationship with my mom. she has been there throughout everything. i tell her all the good things and all the bad. she is my best friend. she is a very strong woman that raised me for years on her own. she has had issues with depression and chronic fatigue, but she has never blamed anyone or used it as an excuse to falter. i don't know what i'll do when she is gone...

i know that sounds cheesy, but it's the only thing that has never changed.

EDIT: i love women: people DO change, but the thread that holds you to them does not.