An Orchestral Fable I wrote this fable (with lots of help from fellow facilitators and their inner protector characters in Australia and the USA - (my thanks to you all) as an alternative way of explaining some of the key elements of inner self, inner child and growing awareness work and I find it useful when introducing the work to newcomers. Please feel free to copy it.
If you
are familiar with inner self work you will recognise many of the key
elements in the fable, including Hal and Sidra s image of the inner
selves or protector characters as players in an orchestra, and the grown-up
self as
conductor.
An Orchestral Fable Once upon a time there was a magical and very natural child, named Naturala who discovered quite early in life that she had a special musical gift. She would spend hours enjoying just being who she was and feeling natural about being special and lovable, while she played her own little toy flute and made the kind of music she enjoyed most. But some grown-ups around her wanted her to do things differently. They didnt like her being so sure of herself and so independent about her music. "You must change", they told her "if you want to fit into this family. Try to be more like us. And stop playing that noisy little flute, its not a real musical instrument. You should learn to play proper music like Mozart and Beethoven." For the first time in her life, Naturala felt ashamed about being who she was and the things she most liked doing. Adapting. Disowning Unparented
vulnerability Those were the times she felt that if she could only play her old flute even now and then, she would feel better. But she couldnt find where it was buried. For a long time, playing it just one more time seemed very important but though she cried and cried and tried and tried she couldnt find it. However, as she grew up, she sensed that finding her flute was no longer as important, since no one wanted to hear her play it anyway. And although she knew the flute was still buried somewhere in the garden, it was becoming more and more difficult to remember what it looked like. The adapted
inner protector characters Naturala was
intrigued to find that many of the orchestra members looked like her and
several of them even said their names were the same as hers, but each one
played a different musical instrument. Most were quite young. Then one wonderful day a conductor arrived to help sort things out. He was young but already quite experienced and he seemed confident in his ability to take charge and lead the orchestra. The grown-up Quite soon things
began to work more smoothly. Meister Moreaware pacified the most competitive
of the musicians and showed them how much better their music sounded when
everyone calmed down and played together as a team. Inner father He also provided protection from an old ex-player called Matriarch who used to hang around backstage and try to undermine the players self confidence. Inner mother She was a kind, loving and nurturing mother, but with a strong maternal energy, strong enough, even, to protect people from a couple of troublesome musicians, Patriarch and Critic or anyone else who tried to destabilise things in the orchestra. Embracing the
selves He seemed to be able to keep his eye on what every player was doing, encourage them all and support each person to help them play better than ever before. He loved to go round after a concert, embracing each member of the orchestra and complementing them on their performance. And yes, one day Naturala went home, found her old toy flute and showed it to Meister Moreaware. He promised her he would find a piece of music where it would be just right. And so it happened, with the help of Meister Moreaware and the orchestras inner mother and father, that one special day Naturala played her little toy flute in a full symphony concert. The piece was, of course, from Mozarts best loved work, The Magic Flute. This page is released from copyright. Please feel free to reproduce it, distribute it or modify it as you wish, free of any payment, fee or royalty. Signed John Bligh Nutting 14 July 2007 e-mail bligh4@growingaware.com
However, I would appreciate
acknowledgment of my name on each copy, as the originator of the work, and
ask you to mention my website |
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