wendy@backinblighty.com wrote...

Do you wish to be listed anonymously? N/A

Which area is your meta4 useful in? Fear of Cancer. This is a layered metaphor I have used with a female patient who suffers from a fear of cancer... having overcome many obstacles, suffering much stress along the way, she fears her happiness to be like a bubble about to burst, convinced she will die from cancer.

Which country? UK

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" Have you ever heard the story of the straw that broke the camels back?........ And how this camel was a very fine and very strong camel, and he was walking proudly and happily through the desert one day when he met with a poor Nomad........ who had lost his own camel and needed help.

The fine, strong camel wanted to help and offered to carry the Nomad's load for him. The Nomad was very grateful and piled his load happily onto the camel. The camel found it easy, and felt good about being able to help this man.......... And for quite some time the two of them wandered along happily side by side........ But you know, the sun got hotter.... and they were quite a way from any watering hole, and although camels can go for a long time in the desert without water, the Nomad found it more difficult....... and in time he asked if he too could have a ride.

The kindly Camel agreed, happily... and so the two continued.......... After several miles, they met another Nomad down on his luck, and the Camel........ without even a thought for himself offered to help again. The second Nomad piled his load onto the camel's back and on they walked........... Not much further and they came upon another Nomad, and soon another.

Each time the kindly Camel received a new burden to carry.......... but he never thought to turn it away. He had the finest and most generous of motives. And on and on they all trekked..... More and more thirsty, more and more in need of nourishment, further and further away from the last place they called home, where they knew there was water...........

Well they kept on going, the camel continued to take on more loads, and he did it very well indeed..... but he was beginning to feel weak and reached a point when he thought.....'If I take on another thing here, my back is going to break....even the tiniest, lightest, most insignificant thing, (like a straw maybe?).... will see my load come tumbling down, and me with it'.

Now completely exhausted, the camel started to hallucinate....... to see things that weren't really there....And you know how in the desert when it is too hot to bare..... and you are really thirsty, you start to hallucinate and imagine all sorts of things that aren't really there?............ Well it got so bad for the camel that he started to see bubbles....... beautiful floating bubbles....... dancing through the air........ bubbles made from all the colours you could imagine....... all the colours of the rainbow and many many more........ all floating around, so fragile and so beautiful........ and the more there were, the more beautiful they became, and the more fragile they seemed to be.

And you might almost imagine them popping one by one....... until all the bubbles had gone, until there was nothing left........ all that beauty and then...... all that nothing.......

And......I'm reminded of an apple I had once........ A very beautiful apple....... I grew it myself, in my garden..... working very hard to keep the tree healthy, pruning it....... and weeding around the base, giving it water in the hot weather.... and nourishment as it grew........... And on that tree was a lovely apple, all red and crispy........ it looked beautiful, nearly perfect enough to eat....... have you ever found anything that you thought was that good?

Well I was very pleased with my apple, it was so good...... I plucked it from the tree and put it into my fruit bowl and savoured the moment when I would take my first bite............ Sounds crazy maybe but I wanted to enjoy that apple and I thought if I left it in the bowl........ I could let my eyes enjoy it first, I could feel it's hard round smoothness, smell it's fresh 'appley' smell, imagine the crispy sound and the sweet juiciness when I eventually bit into it.

Other people came to my house and were very tempted by that apple, but I polished it daily and would not let them near, even though they tried. And then one day, I thought, the time had come and I reached for my apple and there was a terrible thought. What if I bite into my apple and there is a maggot inside? What if there is something eating away at it inside? I was so scared that I had cherished this thing, all this time and it just might be rotten to the core........... Overcome with fear......... I put it back into the bowl. I carried on polishing it and loving it and working hard to make it the loveliest looking apple anyone ever did see, but all the time I held back, fear took over, .......what a useless state to be in.

Friends and family tried re-assurance, but of course it was no good, because until that fear had been dumped, the apple could not be enjoyed. What are the chances of an apple being maggoty anyway? There are, what, a million trillion billion apples in the world? And only a tiny number has maggots. And then one day.... I noticed that other people also had rosy red apples, and just tucked into theirs without a thought of maggots or disease, and at that moment, I came to my senses,..... if the apple was not to be enjoyed now, there was no point in having it!

The fear and unnecessary worries had to go. What good was it having a wonderful apple...... that I had worked so hard to grow, and then not enjoying it? .......So I made a big decision.......... I let go of all thoughts of maggots, and took a great big...... healthy........bite of that apple....... and do you know what was inside? Inside was healthy white flesh, juicy and sweet, packed full of flavour inside the rich red skin....... waves of joy and relief cleansed away all residues of fear and,...... tucking in to the..... healthy..... maggot free apple, there was a person left nourished, and happy right to the very core.

Fear gone in an instant..... like those bubbles, so beautiful and so fragile...... but that is how bubbles are... it is their very fragility that gives them their beauty..... that makes us want to hang on to them..... and although we can never hold a bubble in our hand, we can enjoy them while they are there...... and feel tremendously peaceful and relaxed watching them dance, around and around, reflecting all those colours, catching all our dreams and reaching new heights....... before we need to dip into the pot and blow some more..... there are always more.... .......every day we have the oppurtunity to gently blow more and more spheres of fragile beauty into our world.

But I was telling you about the camel and how he carried so many burdens for others...... And as he saw those bubbles in the desert...... he suddenly realised that they weren'’t illusions.... they were getting nearer..... and that can only mean one thing...... that he had reached his watering hole...... and that life here was thriving.... the camel almost galloped the last few metres....... so happy was he to have found that he was strong enough to cope after all.

At the watering hole, all the Nomads dismounted and thanked the Camel for his help, and the Camel felt pleased that he had put the effort into getting there..... because now he was in a place where he could at last be rested, calm and happy from inside to out…

Wendy Store.

Ed's note: Thanks Wendy.