Here you can see My Client Here you can see My Client Victor’s Version of the Star Victor’s Version of the Star

Fish StoryFish Story

Victor DefehrVictor Defehr

While living in Canada I had the privilege of getting to life coach a special man named Victor. Now, Victor doesn’t have everything going on for him in life. He is about 50 now, but at a very young age he got Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It has debilitated a lot of his functional ability. It’s not a pleasant thing. One of the reasons I am sharing Victor’s story is that he has limitations because of his disease. You indeed may feel that you have limitations, also. If so, his story is for you.

Victor’s Story of Overcoming His Victor’s Story of Overcoming His LimitationsLimitations

One of the things Victor shared with me at the very beginning of our time together was that he had an aspiration to write a story. One of the things about Victor which I am proud of is that as we regularly met he talked about his aspiration to write that story. Victor is an absolutely bright guy, but he sometimes repeats himself. In addition, Victor doesn’t have all the motor skills to type on a computer or write on paper. He needs to verbalize what he wants to say. So what we’ve done over the last couple of sessions is that we have written his story. It comes from the original story called “The Starfish”.

The Starfish StoryThe Starfish Story

One upon a time there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning as he began his work day.  Early one morning as he was walking down the beach along the shore, he found a vast amount of starfish on the sand, as far as he could see. The old man saw a figure from a distance moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up. As he got closer, he noticed the figure was a young man. But he was not dancing at all. He was picking up starfish and throwing them into the ocean.  The old man went up to him and he asked, “Young man, why are you throwing these starfish into the ocean? What difference could that make?” The young man replied, “Well if I don’t throw these starfish into the ocean they’re going to die.” The old man, still puzzled by what he was saying, said, “Young man, there’s miles and miles of shore and there’s thousands of starfish. What difference can you make?”

The young man bent over and picked up another starfish.  He threw it into the ocean. He said, "I made a difference in that one.”Victor had an inspiration with that story.  He told me, “I want to add a second thought on that story.”  He told me his idea. It wasn’t all formulated, and he didn’t have the computer skills to type it all out at that time. So what we did over the course of time is that I asked him questions and drew out the characters and I drew out the ideas, and we figured it out. So what can we learn from that? What we can learn is that sometimes we might feel limited, but that we can still reach out.. We can say, “I have this idea. I have this aspiration.  I have this dream.”  Whatever it is, you can accomplish that goal in spite of the limitation that you have. This is Victor’s “second thought” on the “Starfish”:

Second thoughts on the star Second thoughts on the star fish story – by Victor Defehrfish story – by Victor Defehr

Once upon a time two young men came to the ocean together at dawn. As they were throwing a Frisbee back and forth they saw an old man. At first glance it looked like he was dancing and greeting the sunrise. The old man was repeating motions as he would bend down and twirl and fling his arm out to the ocean. The young men stopped throwing their Frisbee to watch him because they didn’t know what he was doing.

The curiosity of the young men spurred them to walk closer to this older man to get a better look at what he was doing. They were inspired by the old man’s joyfulness as they now saw what the he was doing. The old man was bending over, picking up star fish and joyfully throwing them back into the ocean. The young men approached the old man and asked “Old man, why are you doing this?”The old man stopped what he was doing and told them: 

Not so many years ago I was walking along this beach and I saw a young man about the same age as both of you walking on a deserted beach just before dawn.” The old man exclaimed “I asked the young man why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time.

The young men were interested in what the old man was saying and they asked him “But why do you waste your time throwing these star fish back into the ocean for all these years.”

The old man calmly picked up another starfish and threw it back into the ocean as he continued “Every dawn since my encounter with that young man have I come down to this beach and many people have seen what I do every morning. “ The old man smiled. “But today is a special day for me.”

So what can we learn from Victor’s story? What we can learn is that sometimes we might feel limited, but that we can still reach out. We can say, “I have this idea. I have this aspiration.  I have this dream.”  Whatever it is, you can accomplish that goal in spite of the limitation that you have.

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