A Teacher of Love
Welcome
Heart Tales is a monthly newsletter for people on an adventure toward wholeness. It is published by Jim Cyr, storyteller, author, and crisis intervention specialist.
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A Teacher of Love
There once was a spiritual community in which an old man lived who was the personification of difficulty–irritable, messy, fighting with everyone, and unwilling to clean up or help at all. No one got along with him. Finally, after many frustrating months of trying to stay with the group, the old man left.
The holy man who led the community followed him and tried to convince him to return, but it had been too hard, and the man said no. At last the leader of the community offered the man a very big monthly stipend if he returned. How could he refuse?
When the old man returned everyone was aghast, and on hearing that he was being paid (while they were being charged a lot to live there), the community was up in arms.
The leader of the community called them together and after hearing their complaints laughed and explained: “This man is a teacher of love.” He said, “Without him you would never really learn about anger, irritability, patience, compassion. and love. That is why you pay me, and why I hire him.”
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Adapted from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart edited by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield.
Thought to Ponder
Who is your “teacher of love”?
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Your Comments Welcome
Post your comments in the comment box or email them to me at jim@hearttales.net
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Heart Tales News
Book
My book, The Cracked Pot: Finding Grace in the Cracks of Child Abuse is available at Amazon.com
“This is one man’s true story of the unspeakable things that were done to him as a child and his rocky journey through adulthood to find God, peace AND his true self.”
Blog
If you enjoy this newsletter, check out The Heart Tales Blog at http://hearttales.net/blog. The blog is published every Monday and Thursday. Check out the current series on The Magic Brocade.
About Jim & Heart Tales
The true spirit of my work is to lead people on a life-changing adventure toward wholeness by connecting their hearts to their true selves, to others, and to God, through stories of healing, wisdom, and faith. My life-changing adventure toward wholeness includes performances of folk and fairy tales, sacred stories, and personal stories, and workshops on how to tell stories in therapeutic settings.
Feedback
“Jim’s storytelling spoke to many of the problems our women face on the road to recovery from addiction and gave them options for handling those problems they had not considered before.”
Helen Raytek, Program Director, Crawford House
“Jim, I want to thank you for your time, efforts, and talents in presenting your Clinical Benefits of Storytelling Workshop. I was very impressed with your professional and fun deliverance of the material and many useful resources and examples. I felt I benefited from it both personally and professionally, and will use what I learned…”
John J. D. Schweska, L.P.C. Assistant Program Director, Mobile Response and Stabilization Services, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen
“…your newsletter is a wonderful resource, and I hope that many will subscribe to it.”
Dr. Robert Bela Wilhelm, Storyfest Ministry
“…Thank you once again, Jim, for sharing your stories/your story and influencing my healing.”
Eileen