He savoured his meal. His hostess, a farmer’s wife, brought him more to eat. “Eat up, vicar. Otherwise it will go to the pigs…”
True Hospitality
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What God has Joined Together …
This is now many years ago. My grandmother told me the following story. And this story had come about when she herself was young and still lived with her parents. A woman often came to her mother – my great grandmother – and poured her heart out. A neighbour who had many woes. My great grandmother was always there for others. She was a good listener, and she had a deep Christian faith. She often advised others and helped where she could.
This neighbour told her about her marriage. It must have been a terrible marriage. Her husband was often drunk. He hit her, he abused her. The woman was desperate. It occurred to her to get a divorce. A brave decision for a lonely woman in a village in Bavaria about eighty years ago. She shared her thoughts with my great grandmother. The latter advised her against it. “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So hath our Lord spoken.” She should try somehow to make it work with her husband. And so it continued for a while, again and again. Then one day it was said that the woman from the neighbourhood was no longer alive. She had hanged herself.
Buying a House
Mr Gundolf said: “I have begun a partnership. But now I have met a woman whom I like even better than my girlfriend.” I answered: “I bought a house and moved in. A few weeks later, I saw a house which was even more beautiful than the one in which I now live. I stayed put.”
To Save the Goat
“Turn around at the next junction! We must help the baby goat!” she insisted. To the right of us was a high supporting wall behind which, in a field, was a herd of grazing goats. One young goat stood lost below the wall. Had it fallen? It obviously could not get back to the others. It stood, helpless and lonely at the edge of the road. We turned around. Prohibitive signs and one-way streets directed us to a long diversion, but finally we arrived at our destination. The goat still stood at exactly the same place. Slowly we came closer. It looked at us, looked up – and with one, nimble leap, was back with the others.
Two Paths
It had come on suddenly. The right halfside of her body felt numb, as if it were anaesthetised. Anna went to the doctor. He frowned and did not say anything for a long time. “Looks like MS” was his conclusion after he had finished his examination. At the hospital she was given cortisone. Some weeks later she developed dizziness. Some months after that, the left side of her body also became numb, just as the right side had done before. Some months after that, her eyesight became blurry. The doctor saw his diagnosis confirmed. As if in a dream she received her disabled person’s pass. “50 %” was written on it – “for now”, she thought. “The power of thoughts” was the title of a presentation she heard during this time, as she mentioned later. Its topic was not about health in particular but about how we can visualise our future dreams so vividly and real, as if they were already true. She was asked to feel in a highly intensive way how it would be to have reached this wonderful state. She saw herself sitting in a green field, light-hearted and happy. She moved freely and felt light. Inside herself she felt a tremendous energy. So overwhelmed was she by the experience that she cried and cried – and yet this experience felt liberating. Each day, fFrom then on, she imagined each day how she would look, what she would do, and how she would feel as a healthy person She concentrated all her attention on this happy future. She let go of everything that did not seem to fit this image. She learned to notice much more quickly what nourished her soul and what was taking energy away from her. She focused all her life on that which strengthened her. After some time she was able to discontinue her medication. This was nine years ago. Her symptoms disappeared and have not come back.
Thomas lives in Switzerland. “Diagnosis: MS” was what his physicians wrote on his report. He has tried mental training and self-hypnosis. He has visualised how it would be to be healthy and has tried to feel it as well as he could. He has suffered more and more attacks. He says there is only one path on which he can go, and this is his path. He is learning to strengthen his inner self for whatever will come. He is learning to cope with an everyday life, which is harder than that of anyone he knows. He is learning to live in an upright state even though he is lying down. He is learning to live with dignity and self-respect even though others pity him. He is learning to feel strong even though his body is weak. He is learning to live from an energy source that many healthy people do not know.
The Rolling Piano
For many years he worked as a pianist. He had experienced countless performances. What then had been his most uncomfortable experience during his concert tours?
“Once”, he related, “I noticed during a concert that the piano which I was playing was not properly secured. Perhaps the floor of the concert hall was also uneven. While I played, the instrument began to gradually roll away from me. I slid behind it with my piano stool, but it continued to roll. I slid, it rolled. Thus it went on and on, during the entire piece. Most instruments have a brake, which must be secured. If not, then God have mercy on you.”
Lumbago
„Witch’s shot“, that’s what they call a lumbago in my country. And indeed, it is like a curse! This pain whenever I move! “It would be best not to move at all any more”, I thought. “If I just keep my arm in front of the body, pull my right shoulder up, let the left shoulder drop down, and bend a little bit forward, I can stand it.” If I were to move very cautiously, I could even go to the door. But how should I press down the handle without changing my posture? Any wrongfalse movement was causing terrible pain.
On the other hand: What was a “wrongfalse movement” in this situation? The longer I stayed in my unnatural position, trying to protect myself from the pain, the more my muscles tensed, and the worse they would ache afterwards. If my means of escape were actually my trap – what could I do?
I decided to do an experiment. Instead of trying to find a comfortable position for my body, I went into the most painful position I could stand for a prolonged time and I stayed like this. Surprisingly, my pain became less after a few minutes, and my ability to move increased. Once more I leaned back into the pain – the worst I could bear. And again the pain decreased after a while and I could move more freely. I repeated this procedure another six or eight times. The curse lost its power and turned into bliss.
Addicted
“It is unbelievable”, said the alcoholic’s wife. “You have been drinking and I am the one who is drunk!” “Again”, he said, shaking his head. “And who’s going to take care of me now?”
To Bid Farewell
We had a poodle. Whenever one of us put on our jacket and got ready to leave the house, the dog rushed at us from behind and nipped at our heels. This was its way of saying “I’ll miss you.”
The Alchemist
In the olden days, there lived a man whose profession was that of those who call themselves alchemists. This man boasted that he could make gold. Now, when the king of his country heard about this, he had the man come before his throne to tell him about his secret. It was in vain that the man asserted that he did not know anything about it. “So then I will imprison you as a liar and an impostor”, the king said. “For this is what you are – either because you have publicly claimed that you can produce gold although you cannot, or because you claim today that you cannot do it although you can. Just tell us what you need for making gold. You shall have it in your dungeon. As soon as you have completed your work you shall tell us, and if you reveal to us how you have accomplished your task, you shall be released.”
Now the poor man had plenty of time to try out his alchemist skills. One day he reported to the jailor: “I have discovered something.” “So what have you discovered?” “I have discovered the secret of how the Chinese produce their porcelain which they sell for gold at our royal court.” The jailor reported this to the king, and the king asked his prisoner to be brought before him once again. After the alchemist had reported his discovery to the king, the king exclaimed: “You have not discovered how to produce gold, but something which is worth more than gold.” With these words, he asked the guards to set the man free, to clothe him like a nobleman and send him home with precious gifts.