My Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike<\/p>\n
Campbell discusses the universal structure of a Monomyth. It is a blueprint for a hero\u2019s journey.\u00a0 This journey has several stages that a hero navigates. This is my story.<\/p>\n
I grew up as the 6th<\/sup> child of an immigrant family new to Canada in the 70\u2019s, we had eight children in our family. We were a middle-class family that worked hard to get there. We did not have any other family members here in Canada, but we had close family friends we considered family. We helped one another and at times would share things another family might find useful or fun. I was given a Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike! <\/em><\/strong>Boy, was I excited, and I rode that bike with pride, doing tricks, riding without any hands, going around the same block multiple times. I was a free spirit with my gang of neighbourhood kids!<\/p>\n My free-spirited childhood came to a quick halt when, at eleven years old, my mother had a brain aneurysm while I was at school. I always came home for lunch and my mom was always the one that would prepare my school lunches, but that day my older sister was the one who greeted me when I got inside the door. She told me my mother had a brain aneurysm, she was in the hospital, and I could not see her because I was much too young to see her there. I could only process the fact she was in the hospital. My mother passed away, my father was in deep grief and soon after, my father had a heart attack, and I then entered a new world of loss and poverty.<\/p>\n This was my departure, the adventure that I did not expect, yet I felt a great need and passion to problem solve my current reality. Me and my Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike and I <\/em><\/strong>went on a mission to provide a solution to what was missing. We had lost my mom and her nurture and care. This bike of mine only knew of trick riding with my gang of neighbourhood friends, we went on a different mission that evening. With the wind in my face, I decided I\u2019d bike around the neighbourhood, peek into my friends\u2019 homes and watch how their moms set the table, how the family would interact, how warm and friendly their homes looked.\u00a0 I saw the sacred rhythms of dinner routines and what it was like to have a mom as the centre of their homes. \u00a0I would take that information back home and bless our home with that. I do not recall lament, overwhelming grief, I only recall a deep sadness for my grieving father and the material poverty I have to endure in my teen years.<\/p>\n Creating beauty in a broken world can be done at any age, I just happened to be younger. I resolved that roadblocks were meant to become opportunities <\/em><\/strong>and from those opportunities I would be surrounded by solutions and greater confidence to navigate this strange new world of mine.<\/p>\n I soon outgrew that Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike <\/strong>of mine. I recall that cool 10 speed bike in my teen years with the wind at my back propelling me forward into a bigger world where I used my experiences to mentor and help others.\u00a0 I had a thread of grief, a remembrance of my profound loss that powered my passion to serve the marginalized that are also heroes with their unique stories. I am now more seasoned, not fumbling as once did trying to help others through the lens of my loss. I have become more of a \u201cJoy-Giver\u201d and \u201cHope-Broker\u201d in people\u2019s lives, propelling others forward to use their experiences and wisdom to inspire others forward.<\/p>\n What I found compelling in Campbell’s \u201cThe Hero with a Thousand Faces,\u201d:<\/p>\n The journey of the hero is powerful when there is a transcendence of the external and internal challenges. It makes the world a better place, a healthier place, and a world where we collectively, in vulnerability, can communally be a change. The human experience helps shape the narrative.<\/p>\n Campbell also highlights the archetypes of a hero\u2019s journey, these fundamental roles have been part of my journey as well: The hero, the mentor, the herald, threshold guardians, the shadow and the shapeshifter. The awareness of these characters helps us to understand our own current reality and context.<\/p>\n My story ends with planes, trains and automobiles. I remember my Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike <\/strong>fondly. My way of transportation is different and seasoned, travelling great distances locally and around the world, helping others. I\u2019ve gained strength through life\u2019s challenges and wins; I\u2019ve gained discernment and wisdom from my peers and mentors. I have traveled outside my childhood surround; my world has grown from my childhood neighbourhood.\u00a0 Fast forward 48 years. I look at that brave little girl who was carefree, joyful and on a mission to find a solution for her family. She has not changed; she still continues to look for solutions and share the miracle of turning roadblocks into opportunities with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike Campbell discusses the universal structure of a Monomyth. It is a blueprint for a hero\u2019s journey.\u00a0 This journey has several stages that a hero navigates. This is my story. I grew up as the 6th child of an immigrant family new to Canada in the 70\u2019s, we had eight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40481,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40480\/revisions\/40481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n