A few gems from a story-telling doctor
AS a doctor and lecturer I wear many hats — that of healer, teacher, confidante, mentor, friend, and cheerleader.
I spend many hours listening to and talking, laughing, and dreaming with my patients and students. They have taught me so many lessons about life.
One of the ways in which I help them is by telling little stories. I inherited the storyteller gene from my mother who often “spoke in parables”. The stories also helped in my personal development. Here are a few:
Change
One day, all the employees of a company were sad when they saw a notice announcing the death of one of their colleagues — a person who, the statement said, “had been hindering your growth in the company”. They were invited to attend the funeral.
Intrigued, they rushed to view the body of this individual. All of them wondering: “Who is this guy who has been hindering my progress?”
One by one, the employees got closer to the coffin. When they looked inside, they were speechless. What was inside the coffin? A mirror.
Everyone who looked inside the coffin saw him or herself.
There was also a sign next to the mirror that read: “There is only one person who is capable of setting limits to your growth — it is you!”
Food for thought: Your life does not change when your spouse, friends, boss, or status changes. Your life changes when you change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs.
Control Your temper
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him to hammer a nail in the back fence every time he lost his temper. After the first day, the boy had driven 20 nails into the fence. Then, the number of nails he was driving into the fence gradually dwindled. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally, the day came when the boy did not lose his temper at all. So, he told his father, who suggested that he pull out one nail for each day that he was able to control his temper.
Eventually, the boy was able to tell his father that all the nails he had driven into the fence were gone. His father led him to the fence and said: “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. It will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like these holes. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It will not matter how many times you say, ‘I’m sorry’, the wound is still there.”
Food for thought: A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
love Yourself
A water bearer in India had two large pots – one hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. This went on each day for a year, with the bearer delivering only one-and-a-half pots full of water to his master’s house.
The cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. The perfect pot, on the other hand, was proud of its accomplishments.
The cracked pot apologised to the bearer for not being perfect: “I have been able, for this past year, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. You don’t get full value for your money.”
The water bearer felt sorry for the old, cracked pot, and in his compassion, he said: “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”
As they went up the hill, the old, cracked pot noticed the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and it felt a little better.
The bearer said to the pot: “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That is because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walked back from the stream, you’ve watered them, producing these beautiful flowers. Without you being just the way you are, this would not have happened.”
Food for thought: We all have our little cracks and flaws. However, they make our lives interesting and rewarding.
Dr Jacqueline E Campbell is a family physician, university lecturer and pharmacologist. She is the author of the book A Patient’s Guide to the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus.
E-mail her at drjcampbell14@yahoo.com