We have an important announcement about the New Story, and about the in-person workshop planned for next month in Austin, Texas. 

But first I want to offer you a window into our thinking… 

Last weekend I spent half a day in the mountains of County Wicklow in Ireland, my homeland, lying on the ground under three downpours each followed by sun splitting the sky, to the benefit of my non-waterproof trousers, but most of all my soul. This was part of a five day retreat in which we were invited to go deeper into the story of what really matters. (Here’s a clue: it’s not ego, nor career, and sometimes it can only be found in the mountains - or the desert, by closing our eyes so we can see better, and switching off the devices so we can hear more.) 

One foundation of what we call the New Story is looking behind the story being told most loudly to ask two simple questions:

1. Is it true? (Or the truest version we could discern right now?)

2. Is it helpful? (Or are we telling it the most helpful way?)

If the answer to either is “no”, then we look for the more truthful, and the more helpful way, paying attention to why the previous version was less so. 

We’re living through a time of such rapid change in our stories that it’s easy to feel uncertain of almost everything - or too exhausted to even try. 

We need time in the mountains, or the desert, or with whatever helps us discover the core beneath the core. The place within that knows what we believed before busyness and cynicism got in the way: that the only path to a life worth living is summed up in the wisdom of ages: to be fully human is to devote yourself to Love, to love your neighbor, and to love yourself. 

Nothing less complicated or more simple than that. 

In the New Story community, we’re trying to learn more about this invitation to love. For four years now, we’ve nurtured groups of people in Austin and online, and hosted several major events, most notably the 2019 New Story Festival with over 1,000 registered participants. But the numbers don’t matter as much as the heart and the intent: to build communities who learn and share a better story, contributing to a better world - a world of more fairness and generosity, more health and kindness, more honoring the ecosystem in which we exist, more celebration of and service toward the common good. No one left in isolation or separation. 

Because of that heart and intent, we are cancelling our September “How Not to Be Afraid” workshop, and are holding off on planning any other in-person New Story events for the foreseeable future.  

The ongoing realities of the pandemic, particularly in Austin where COVID cases and hospitalizations are as high as they’ve been since January, are such that meeting in person at this time would be irresponsible and unloving toward our community. 

This is not a fear-based decision, but one rooted in love: we encourage us all to consciously reflect on how the New Story can show up even while we cannot meet in person. As one possibility, our Living the New Story online course, will continue to meet for monthly workshops and discussions through the end of the year. You are warmly invited to join us for those. 

On a personal level, the work of stewarding the New Story vision has reached a point where it will not be sustainable without a pause. My co-founder Mike Clawson has done by far the lion’s share of the work, and those of us at the heart of planning New Story activities truly do need a retreat - a hibernation, if you will, that allows us to return, hopefully next year, with more clarity about what’s next, and the energy to do it. 

In the meantime, we’ll keep seeking the New Story, and we send you our love. 

-Gareth Higgins, New Story Co-Founder