I love an origin story.

What's your origin story? When does "it" all begin? From a cosmic egg? From creation-filled words of an eternal entity? From the womb or a first memory? From a specific ancestor who seems close to you in spirit or gumption or personality?

Where do you begin?

I would argue that each of us has the same beginning to our origin story. We all have the same first line, the same starting point. Who your people are, the land that has feed you, the trees you've shared breath with, the food that would become comfort and the tongue that will become mother are all key parts of your beginnings and forming. But…there is a first line.

Actually, there is the inhale before you say the first line and the exhale as you start it...this is the same for each of us.

That breath is dignity.

There is no origin story without the first breath to begin telling it. The breath before the first line is the same regardless of what comes after, regardless of who is telling the story. Even to tell the story of the cosmic egg or creation-filled words, there is the breath of dignity preceding the story of beginning.