It is a timeless story and one worth sharing. This beautiful kindness has stayed with me from the first time I read it many years ago.
A 40-year-old writer named Franz Kafka was strolling in a Berlin park in the 1920s when he saw a young girl crying because she had lost her favorite doll. He helped her search for it without success and agreed to meet the next day to continue the hunt.
On that day, he gave the young girl a letter from the doll which read in part, “Please don’t cry. I have taken a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”
Likely the little girl nor her parents knew this was a man who would one day be considered among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Their friendship continued, meetings interspersed with the busy life of a growing child and a famous novelist, during which time the doll’s letters were shared, describing adventures and conversations the traveling doll experienced all over the world.
Eventually, Kafka bought a doll and gave it to the young girl, saying the doll had finally decided to come back to Berlin. “But it looks nothing like my doll,” the little girl said.
Kafka pulled a letter from his pocket in which the doll observed, “My travels have changed me.”
A year later, Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis.
Many years passed without this story having been shared. But one day the grown woman happened to find a little note inside the doll, signed by Kafka which read “Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will come back in another form.”
This great story is a reminder of how life is constantly evolving. Losses are suffered in seemingly endless ways. We can grovel in it or look for ways in which loss metamorphosizes into the rebirth of something new and wonderful.
This week, we laid to rest a dear aunt, my mother-in-law’s sister, beloved by all who were blessed to have known her. As we gathered to say our goodbyes to Aunt Lois Beach, I could see her sparkle and her love in every child she loved along the way.
My daughter told me Aunt Loie’s wedding gift will forever be her favorite because it included a handwritten note along with her treasured cookie recipe. “It was just so sweet, and it means so much to me,” Caroline said. That immeasurable sweet sparkle is now a part of my daughter, which she shares with others lucky enough to know her. It is a gift that grows if only we embrace it into existence.
Life doesn’t require huge gestures to make an enormous difference. It is made better by caring hearts and attention paid to others when it matters most.
