Inspiring Stories

In a psychological experiment, the experimenters made goggles that turn the picture of the world our eyes receive upside down. They strapped these to their subjects, and recorded the results. One group was simply turned loose with an upside-down view of the world. Another group was closely supervised, put in wheelchairs, and wheeled around to live their lives. The unsupervised, un-wheel chaired group crawled and stumbled around for about two weeks. Then...mirabile dictu!...their amazing brains turned the world right side up. The wheelchair group never managed to do that.

So...the next time you're lamenting your stumbles and discomfort, remember...you're also learning something, and it could literally turn your world upside down.

(from my sister):

At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.

Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.

The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter "written" by the doll saying "please don't cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures."

Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka's life.

During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.

Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.

"It doesn't look like my doll at all," said the girl.

Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: "my travels have changed me." The little girl hugged the new doll and brought the doll with her to her happy home.

A year later Kafka died.

Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:

"Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way."

Embrace change. It's inevitable for growth. Together we can shift pain into wonder and love, but it is up to us to consciously and intentionally create that connection.