
Once upon a time,
in a land not so far from here,
a cobbler, mired in misery,
inquired about who might help
to allay his anxiety and grant him counsel.
The baker, the midwife, and the barber –
the three most respected persons he knew –
suggested to the cobbler that he visit
the Witch of Widespread Renown
who lived in the forest outside of town.
This witch, they said, was unlike
the past wizards of note,
who endeared themselves
to troubled townspeople
with pretense and spectacle.
The Witch of Widespread Renown,
they claimed,
possessed quiet, yet powerful magic.
He had heard of this witch
but had not, to this point,
taken occasion to seek her advice.
The time seeming ripe,
the man gathered his courage
(as he found it peculiar to ask for help)
and set out.
The way was long. The day hurled
a cold, steady wind at the cobbler’s face,
the kind of wind that invigorates a person
even as its force leaves one
wheezing and exhausted.
Though the cobbler was unaccustomed
to walking such a distance, he strode
deliberately, shoulder to the wind,
deeper and deeper into the woods.
The Witch of Widespread Renown
frequented long sitting periods
on a well-worn tree stump
next to a clearing in the forest,
where, it so happened,
the cobbler stumbled upon her.
Taken aback by her still gaze,
and her blackness,
the man struggled to contain his fright.
A minute passed like an hour.
The Witch broke her trance and shifted her eyes.
In a low, slow voice, she asked,
“Are you here by design, or would you be lost?”
“I am not lost,” said the cobbler quite proudly.
“I knew the way here.”
“I am not asking about your directional acuity,”
said the Witch of Widespread Renown.
“When I ask, ‘Are you lost?’
I refer to your state of mind.
By ‘lost,’ I mean an emptiness of purpose,
a liminal, tentative, space,
betwixt and between,
neither here nor there,
where turning from the past,
and fear of the future beckon.
Where one feels
dislocated from one’s deepest desires.”
A puzzled expression seized the cobbler’s face.
“She has just told me about myself,”
he thought.
“How will I answer her?”
Realizing he was in the presence of a sorcerer,
or in any case, a person with special powers,
the cobbler squirmed, then uttered,
“I shall admit to you that
according to your description
I am surely lost.”
“Tell your story, if you please,”
invited the Witch of Widespread Renown.
“I have come upon many difficulties which…”
(the cobbler fidgeted, clearing his throat)
“…conspired to occur in rapid succession,
leaving me without a desire to live.”
“My wife took ill and died last week,
throwing our children and me into grief.”
“My sister abandoned me years ago
due to a debt she could not repay,
and that I refused to forgive.”
“I had hoped that a life of hard work
at the cobbler’s bench
would secure my future, and indeed
my money sack is full.
But, despite my good fortune,
an emptiness has overtaken me,
and I have lost my way.”
The cobbler lowered his head, as if shamed.
After a long period of silence,
the Witch of Widespread Renown spoke.
“I will repeat back to you what I heard,
Not in your words but in my own,” she said.
“Your wife has died, and you are in grief.”
“Your children have lost their mother.”
“You value the principle of an unpaid debt
ahead of your relationship with your sister.”
“You have pursued an honest living,
but money has not purchased your fulfillment.”
“You wish to end your life.”
Hearing his own citations repeated back,
in stark and unmistakable words,
shook the cobbler into a state of great clarity.
“I must walk with my children through
our grief, for we have suffered a shared loss,”
He declared.
“I cannot abandon them – or myself.”
He continued:
“My sister is an upstanding woman
whom financial luck has bypassed.
In my shunning of her,
I have placed justice ahead of mercy.
I must seek her out,
and ask for her clemency.”
“As for my money, perhaps I can set myself free
from my hollow existence
by employing my funds for the good
of others.”
In response to the cobbler’s oration,
the Witch of Widespread Renown sat motionless.
“Thanks be to you,” the cobbler said.
“You have helped me hear my own foolish thoughts
that burdened me towards self-destruction.
Your presence unstuck me.
How fortunate I am to have met you this day.”
The cobbler turned from the
Witch of Widespread Renown, and
started home.
All along the way, he found himself pondering,
“What treasure exceeds the value
of a non-biased listener
in whose presence I am able to
hear my own voice?”
This powerful story shows how deep listening can help bring clarity to the tension, allowing the one with the problem to decide what they will do to solve that problem.