INSPIRING STORY OF THE WEEK – A LEAP OF WORDS by Cami Ann Hofstadter, Ph.D
INSPIRING STORY OF THE WEEK
A LEAP OF WORDS
by Cami Ann Hofstadter, Ph.D
Some inspiring stories are lighthearted, while others contain powerful messages.
A Leap of Words is one with a powerful message.
The death sentence was handed down on a Thursday. Surgeon’s had removed a golf ball sized tumor from her fiance’s head. “Time to take up parachuting,” one of the doctor’s advised. He was telling Andy it was time to do something out of the ordinary before it was too late.
This wasn’t something for an obsessive-compulsive like Andy to take lightly. You see, control through rigid routines was one of the touchstones for his particular kind of OCD. His grown daughter and I decided we wouldn’t say anything about dying because we knew he’d be obsessing about death instead of enjoying whatever time he had left. If this included parachuting, so be it.
Andy was the first Jewish man for me, the shiksa, the Scandinavian-born academician and writer. I had long depended on my Protestant heritage to get me through life’s hardships. He, on the other hand, was a pragmatist, a man who didn’t believe in anything that he couldn’t prove through his five senses. He scoffed at all religion and esoteric debates were not for him, although he was good-natured enough to go along with the few holiday traditions I observed. Still, he’d get agitated by any mention of faith and prayer.
And yet ultimately Cami found a way to help Andy, through some simple words that had comforted Nordic children for generations.
A Leap of Words in one of fourteen Inspiring stories, now published in:
Tales2Inspire ~ The Ruby Collection
Gifts of Compassion
More stories by Cami:
Maintenance for My Soul – The Man From Nowhere
Leftover Feminism – My Lunch With Betty Friedan
Maria, what a moving story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of it soon.
Micki Peluso
Micki, I’m so glad you noticed Cami Ann’s wonderful story, ‘A Leap of Words’ and took the time to let her know. This is exactly what I mean about “Authors Helping Authors”. It takes but a minute to reach out to a fellow author to express your appreciation for their story, and guess what? It helps the one who reaches out.
[…] A Leap of Words (Tales2Inspire ~ The Ruby Collection): When your beloved is dying you want to do everything in your power to maintain the same routines that have comforted him throughout his years as an obsessive-compulsive. But when you and he come from two different religious traditions – one secularly Jewish and the other Protestant – a new ritual involving bedtime prayers creates a moral dilemma. This is a story about how it’s possible for someone who never liked change to find solace in the soothing rhythm of words he can’t understand. Read more. […]