Heart Tales is a monthly newsletter for people on an adventure toward wholeness. It is published by Jim Cyr, storyteller, author, crisis intervention specialist, and minister.

[Adapted from Candles in the Dark by Todd Outcalt]

Long ago a poor man and woman had nine children. This made eleven all of them living together in a small house.

Life was difficult, and the father used to go to the river every evening after a long day work to fish for the family dinner. But, try as he might, he never caught more than eleven fish at one time. This meant that everyone in the family was able to eat just one fish for supper.

Every day the man would pray, “O Lord, how is it possible for a person to satisfy his hunger with only one fish?”

As time went by, the man began to have other thoughts about the fish, and he wondered how he might obtain a second fish for his own dinner. There were days when he even pondered the possibility of having death in the family so that he might enjoy two fish instead of one. He was not an evil man, but was merely trying to satisfy his own hunger.

Day after day he went to the river, but always he returned with eleven fish. Then one day the man received word that one of his children had died.

Naturally, he was deeply saddened by his loss. But soon afterwards, the thought came into his head that he would, at last, have an extra fish to eat.

The next day, when the man went to the river, he was sad, but cheered by the one thought of what awaited him for supper that night. However, that day he caught only ten fish.

The man said to himself, “When I caught eleven fish, I was happy, and God provided. Now I catch only ten. So what have I accomplished?”

Do I appreciate what I have or grump about what I don’t have? 

I invite you to send me your thoughts about Enough Fish.You can email me at jim@hearttales.net

Book

My book, The Cracked Pot: Finding Grace in the Cracks of Childhood 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 and contains a story with a brief reflection.

Telecast

If you missed the telecast of my interview with Diane Eble you can hear the replay at http://www.askjimcyr.com/replay.php

A Great Big Thank You 

Thank you to Charles Walker for his work redesigning my Heart Tales newsletter and Web site.

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.

“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