Category Archives: Feeling and Emotion

Two cactuses

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Another story by Katharina Lamprecht…

“This is awful!”, one cactus complained, “My thorns are so long that no animal dares to come near me. No lizard, no bird not even the tiniest termite! I feel so lonely”.

“Why are you complaining?” the other cactus answered, “Mine are so weak and thin and soft that I cannot defend myself at all. No animal shows me any respect. The lizards climb all over me and tickle me with their little feet and the birds dig their claws so deep into my flesh that it hurts. I hate it”.

“You are a lucky one”, the first cactus replied, “I would give my roots for an experience like that. Imagine, feeling all that life on oneself”.They went on complaining and lamenting in this way to each other for a while. But suddenly they had a wonderful idea: they would swap their thorns so that each other could get the feeling they wanted. And for a short time, both were happy. One, to feel the birds and lizards and the other to enjoy peace and quiet. But that didn´t hold on for long and soon each began to complain again. They felt their new lives to be exhausting or boring and they longed for their old lives. So they swapped their thorns back. But again, after a short period of contentment they began whining again as before.

Then one day the wise old snake came along and rested for a moment in the shade, the two cactus casted. She listened to the two of them, complaining away, and suddenly she whispered “instead of wailing to one another you better learn from one another”. And with these words said, she slithered on.

The cactus thought about these words for three days and three nights. Then they began to try and find out, how they each managed to let their individual thorns grow. When they knew how to do that, each started to explain and teach the other how to do it. After some practice they knew precisely how to grow strong and how to grow weak thorns. And the more they experimented the better they became and the more colorful and different their thorns got.

Now they were able to keep a perfect balance between peace and quiet and lively action. And for the wise little snake they created a thornless and shady space right between them.

La respiration agréable

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Une amie m’a appelée. Elle respirait extrêmement vite et de manière agitée et ne pouvait prononcer que quelques mots à la fois. Sa voix avait un drôle de son. Elle raconta que sa fille venait d’avoir un accident de voiture avec son bébé sur le siège arrière. Le bébé n’avait rien eu mais le SAMU avait transporté sa fille à l’hôpital car ils craignaient une fracture de la base du crâne. Elle-même avait dû rester où elle était ; elle devait garder le bébé et n’arrivait pas à savoir ce qui se passait avec sa fille. J’ai alors commencé à respirer et à parler de la même façon qu’elle et au bout d’un certain temps j’ai changé de rythme et ai ralenti peu à peu ma respiration et ma façon de parler. J’ai remarqué qu’elle me suivait instinctivement dans mon comportement et qu’elle se calmait. Sa voix sonnait claire et forte et ce qu’elle racontait maintenant sonnait plus positif qu’au début de la conversation. « Je te remercie de la façon dont tu m’as parlé », ont été ses mots quand elle termina la conversation.

L’interrupteur d’arrêt d’urgence

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« Vous travaillez avec la méthode de l’hypnose ? », m’a demandé l’homme. « Alors vous pourriez tout simplement enlever-hypnotiser mon problème ». Il rigolait. Sa femme l’avait amené, il n’avait pas une grande envie de faire une thérapie. Je lui ai demandé « Quelle est votre problème ? ». « Il m’a frappé » a répondu la femme qui était assise à côté de lui. « En plus à ce moment-là j’avais notre fils sur les bras. » « C’était comme si quelqu’un avait appuyé sur l’interrupteur d’arrêt d’urgence » a-t-il dit. « Ca a été une réaction automatique. Cela n’aurait jamais dû arriver ». « Vous n’avez pas besoin d’être hypnotisé » ai-je répondu. « Vous pouvez faire ça vous-même. Est-ce que vous connaissez ces boîtes en verre rouges qui pendent dans les hôpitaux et les édifices publics avec un interrupteur qui déclenche une alerte incendie ? » « Bien sûr » a dit l’homme. « « Pourquoi y-a-t-il un verre devant ? « « Pour qu’on ne la déclenche pas par erreur ». « Et si on prenait une vitre très fine comme une lame porte-objet pour un microscope ? » « Elle casse quand on se cale contre ». « Qu’en est-il du verre blindé ? » « C’est trop épais. » « Réfléchissez à l’épaisseur pour que votre femme ne puisse pas la défoncer. Regardez cette vitre et mettez-la en place. »

The Wash

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This is another story by my colleague and friend Katharina Lamprecht…

Once there was a little ghost, who felt so down and out that it could not even find any pleasure in haunting its tiny world. The days seemed to be like huge impassable mountains and even the tiniest movement was too much for it. It felt so run down that a gust of wind was able to grab it and sweep it into a washing trough, where linen was being soaked. Too wet, too heavy in body and mind and too tired the little ghost sighed and sank to the bottom of the trough.
Now because it looked exactly like a linen, the washer women took it through the whole procedure of wringing and mangling and put it on the clothesline in the end. There it was, hanging down from the line, flabby and damp and drifting feebly in the summer breeze.
The more it dried, the more effortlessly it flapped around on the clothesline but in its sad and doleful condition it could not feel or sense its lightness. But then a little girl walked by, stopped and looked at it for a while. Then, with a yearning in her voice, she said, “Oh, if I were able to fly so easily in the wind, I would laugh and sing and enjoy my day”. She went off but the little ghost looked after her for a long time and thought, “Oh, you would, would you?” and started to move just a tiny little bit on its own.

To Fail with Enthusiasm

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In a professional forum a colleague asked, if anybody knew of a certain therapeutical story. He remembered one that he once heard and thought that it was from a famous storyteller. Until then I never had actually written in this forum but now I wrote on behalf of this colleague’s question that I thought it was the famous story about a tiger. I was quite happy that I was able to contribute something at last until I read the response of another colleague. “I don’t know anything about a tiger”, he wrote, “but I guess you may have thought about the famous lion story”. I instantly sank into a hole three miles deep, full of shame and embarrassment. Now wasn’t that just typical of me and my incomplete knowledge? Shortly afterward I told a friend of mine what had happened, still very ashamed. But he hugged me and said “But you gave that wrong information with much love and enthusiasm”. I looked at him and began to work my way out of that hole.

The Zen Cat

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“Mom, in my next life I´m going to be a cat”, my son said, “look at her. She eats when she eats, she purrs when she purrs and she sleeps when she sleeps. She is always self centered”.

“Good idea”, I answered, “ you can try to find out how that feels in this life already, if you want to”. My son glanced at me knowingly and smiled.

Le gramophone

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J’ai un phonographe à la maison. J’y fais passer des chansons comme « Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen » – Seulement ne pas pleurer à cause de l’amour et « Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh’n » – Je sais qu’il y aura un miracle un jour. Zarah Leander chante ça avec sa voix basse – c’est magnifique ! Puis j’écoute la voix de corbeau de Louis Armstrong, et pour moi c’est une rencontre avec lui-même, avec lui tout personnellement. J’écoute Caruso, il chante avec son vibrato depuis la nuit des temps : « O sole mio… ». Leurs voix volent vers moi des rainures du disque, sans électricité. Elles arrivent vers moi comme les voix de ces personnes même. Quand leurs voix retentissent du pavillon, les chanteurs sont des hôtes dans mon temps. Je les rencontre dans la même pièce. Puis le gramophone se tait, leurs voix retournent dans cet autre monde séparé du notre, là où habitent les anciens possesseurs de ces voix.

Explosion

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This is a story by my colleague and friend Katharina Lamprecht from Bruchköbel near Frankfurt, Germany…

One day an old Sufi master came through a little village, where just previously a big blast had occurred. In the middle of the village square was a huge hole in the ground and stones and lumps of mud and earth scattered everywhere. „Master“, the people cried, “look at the disaster that happened to us.  The center of our village, our village´s pride and joy, is destroyed. What shall we do?  Please, advise us.” „Dig“, the old man answered. „Dig? But there is already such a big hole. Wouldn´t it be better to fill it up“?
“If you have to overcome an obstacle, there are different ways to do so. You can either ignore it, remove it or use it. You never know if there is a treasure hidden”. Pondering these words, the people began to dig slowly, deeper and deeper until they hit upon a natural spring of pure sweet, delicious water which in time brought trees and flowers to their village square.

Keys

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I’m using this story to support people who have suffered a stroke to recover their memories. Of course it can be used with any kind of amnesia or neurological loss of abilities, like with a person waking up after bein in coma for a long time. The story can also be used with students who are afraid of exams or with self inconfidence problems.

Was it a dream? Was it reality? I walked through the building. To my right and to my left were many doors. I turned the handles but not a door opened. The rooms were closed to me. I sat down and wept. “Why are you crying?” asked someone. I pointed to the locked doors. “Do you not know… ” he said and pointed to the pockets of my coat. “You have the keys!” I reached into my pockets and indeed pulled out two massive bunches of keys, two key rings with hundreds and hundreds of different shaped keys, large and small. How was I to know which key fit the lock of many rooms? “You have to try it,” said my encourager. “In your own time. You have all the time in the world. Try all the doors and try all the keys. Gradually you will open more and more doors. Never give up. Your freedom will grow with every open room and one day you will know the door to every key and the key to every door.”