| I had never heard of Franz Kafka before last week and simply had to share it with you! The story goes that Frank, age 40, had never been married and had no children. One day, he encountered a little girl in the park where he walked every day and she was crying. She’d lost her doll and was desolate. Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and they did with no success. They agreed to meet the next day at the same spot and look further. |
| The next day, they met, and when they still could not find the doll, Kafka pulled out a letter “written” by the doll. He read it to the girl, “Please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world and I will write to you about my adventures!” The little girl went home still missing her doll but excited. Thus began a story that would continue the remainder of Kafka’s life. Kafka and the young girl would meet and he would read her the letters from the doll with adventures and conversation which the young girl found adorable and comforting. One day, at last, Kafka shows up with a doll and presented it to the girl, telling her that her doll was home from Berlin. The young girl said it did not look anything like her doll she’d lost and Kafka pulled out a letter and read another letter from the doll saying, “My travels have changed me…” and the young girl hugged the doll and took her home. Kafka passed away the following year. Many years went by and one day, the grown up girl found a letter sewn into an unnoticed crevice in the doll. It read, in summary: “Every thing that you love, will likely eventually be lost, but in the end, love will always return in another way.” I love this story for so many reasons, to think about the love Kafka extended to a little girl he’d never met, and did so for years, how that love changed her while changing him in all likelihood. Just the message of love’s power and how it always comes back to us. Love has a power that cannot be contained. When you think about its magnitude, it truly can’t be explained. It heals, it soothes, it comforts, every person and every thing, it changes every aspect of what each day can bring. Let’s plant love, sow love, give away love, and nurture it when it comes our way, for if we all tend a garden of love, it can feed the world every day. Tracey King Rice Written 01.15.24 |
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