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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The Knuckleheads

Mark made a fortune during the dot-com explosion in the 1990’s. Mark had two sons, Matthew, his older son, and Michael, his younger son. One day Michael said to his father, “Dad, I don’t want to wait for you to die to get my inheritance. Give it to me now!”

So with a heavy heart, Mark estimated his net worth and then divided it evenly between Matthew and Michael.

A couple of weeks later, Michael pulled all of his money out of the bank, hopped on a jet for Cancun, and partied his way up and down the coast of Mexico.

After he had spent all he had, a recession hit the United States and Mexico and Michael found himself on the streets, homeless. He searched everywhere fro a job but no one wanted to hire a gringo.

Finally, Michael managed to find some day labor working in fields picking melons. He wished he could swipe one of the melons to eat but the foreman watched all the laborers like a hawk, especially the gringo.

One day, as he sat in the hot sun resting for a moment, he thought to himself, “What a knucklehead I am! If I was back living with my father I’d have plenty to eat, a soft bed to sleep in, and money in my pocket. Here I am barely surviving hand to mouth, sleeping in a cardboard box in a back alley in town. Even my father’s servants live better than me now. I’m going to go back to my father and tell him that I screwed up. I’ll ask him to let me wash and polish his fleet of Bentleys to earn my keep. So Michael got up, walked to the highway, and began hitchhiking home.

The journey was long and hard. Since he left in the middle of the day he was not paid and had no money. Michael bummed money for MacDonald’s burgers from people who picked him up. At night, he slept in bushes by the side of the road. At last, after weeks of traveling up through Mexico into the United States and across the country, he came to his street.

As he began walking down the street, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran down the street in his three piece Christian Dior suit, threw his arms around Michael and hugged him.

Michael said to his father, “Dad, I’ve screwed up and brought shame to our family. Let me…

But Mark shouted to his assistant, “Quick! Bring my Armani suit and put it on him. Put a Rolex on his wrist and Testoni shoes on his feet. Put some prime rib on the grill and bring out the Asti Spumanti. Let’s have a barbecue and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead to me and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” So they began to party.

 Meanwhile, Matthew was at his father’s factory doing inventory. When he drove up the driveway in his Mercedes he heard through the open window “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang blaring from a boom box in the backyard. So he called one of his father’s assistants and asked her what was going on. “Michael, your brother, has come home,” he replied, and “your father is grilling prime rib and popping bottles of Asti Spumanti left and right because he has him back safe and sound.”

Matthew became angry and refused to go in. So Mark came out and pleaded with him. But Matthew answered his father, “Look, all these years I’ve been kissing butt. Yet you never even gave me a steak and a six pack to celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your money on hookers, weed, and coke comes home. You throw him a bash!”

“Matthew,” said his father, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours . But we had to party and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead to me and is alive again.; he was lost and is found.”

Thought to Ponder

Who am I in this story?

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Your Comments Welcome

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Heart Tales News

Where’s Jim at?

September 2, 2009 - speaking at Essex County Family Support Organization Youth Partnership

September 20, 27, October 4 -teaching and telling stories in the Presbyterian Church of Westfield Life Long Learning Class

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 Accepting the Broken.

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