Kindness gives you Hope

This morning my mother sent me a story worth sharing and although it might be well known to you, its value for us, as coaches is immense. The story is about Franz Kafka, a broken hearth little girl and a doll. It goes like this:

One day walking in the park, Franz Kafka ran into a little girl in tears, sobbing inconsolably. He noticed nobody approached her, so he asks her if she has lost her mum? she shake her head and continue sobbing. He then asked her if she is lost, but the little girl tells him that she’s lost her favourite doll in the world. She said, she left her doll sitting on the bench while she went playing and that she cannot find it anymore.

Kafka answered: ‘Your doll has gone off on a trip,’ which the little girl replied with a incisive voice ‘How do you know that?’  ‘Because I am the doll’s post man,’ Kafka says. The girl asked . ‘Can you give it to me now?’  ‘No, I’m sorry,’ Kafka says. ‘Today is my day off, but tomorrow I’ll bring it to you here.’

This is the beginning of many letters where the little girl is given an opportunity to heal her lost, mourn and liberate her love. For three weeks, Kafka meets the little girl to read about her beloved it doll. On the first letter the doll apologies to the little girl for leaving her like this, the doll explains that she’s aware that she wanted to travel and see the world. The doll assures the little girl of her love for her and promise to write and share her adventures.

The following letters narrated the doll’s transition from a little doll to a growing up doll while constantly expressing love towards the little girl in many, many ways. Similarly, the little girl was transforming, changing and preparing to let go of her beloved doll. On the last letters,  the doll tells her about falling in love, progressing to getting married and living a happy life in the country side. Finally, when the farewell letter arrives, the doll’s happiness, joy, safety, honesty, forgiveness, trust and love have been extended to the little girl, who in return was ready to say goodbye too.

In a more elaborated story, Kafka gave the little girl a new doll with a note that said: ‘My travels have changed me.’ and the story even goes further into the future when after many years the girl, now an old lady, discovered a letter stuffed into the arm of the doll. It read “Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”

Although there are many interpretations of Kafka’s doll story,  none can change the real intention inside Kafka’s hearth. His curiosity lead him to witness a tremendous lost in a little girl while his empathy went to find creativity to connect with her in a deeper level. It was then that magic happened. Kafka decided to take the opportunity and offer the little girl a chance to transform and to evolve her pain into love. He was creating. He was involve in the process. He payed attention until his worked was no longer needed. Kindness in action.

Franz Kafka offered hope to a little girl. Born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, capital of what is now the Czech Republic, writer Franz Kafka grew up in an upper middle-class Jewish family. After studying law at the University of Prague, he worked in insurance and wrote in the evenings. In 1923, he moved to Berlin to focus on writing, but died of tuberculosis shortly after. His friend Max Brod published most of his work posthumously, such as Amerika and The Castle. Biography.com, (2018).