Christopher Robin nodded.
“Then there’s only one thing to be done,” he said. “We shall have to wait for you to get thin again.”
“How long does getting thin take?” asked Pooh anxiously.
“About a week, I should think.”
“But I can’t stay here for a week!”
“You can stay here all right, silly old Bear. It’s getting you out which is so difficult.”
“We’ll read to you,” said Rabbit cheerfully. “And I hope it won’t snow,” he added. “And I say, old fellow, you’re taking up a good deal of room in my house—do you mind if I use your back legs as a towel-horse? Because, I mean, there they are—doing nothing—and it would be very convenient just to hang the towels on them.”
“A week!” said Pooh gloomily. “What about meals?”
“I’m afraid no meals,” said Christopher Robin, “because of getting thin quicker. But we will read to you.”
Bear began to sigh, and then found he couldn’t because he was so tightly stuck; and a tear rolled down his eye, as he said;
“Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?”
From Winnie-the-Pooh
, by A. A. Milne
, by A. A. MilneOn Friday night I had the opportunity to sit down over tea and sandwiches with a small group of women for the express purpose of sharing our life stories with one another. I came away feeling incredibly blessed. I love hearing people’s stories, both because it helps me understand them better and because it helps me understand life better. I have many times felt like a Wedged Woman in Great Tightness. It is hard to understand your own story, sometimes, when you are right in the middle of it. But following the arc of someone else’s story—that offers insight from a more comfortable perspective, and sometimes insight into one thing leads to insight into another. Sort of like when you’re working on a puzzle and getting one piece into the right place makes your whole perspective shift. Suddenly you know where a whole handful of pieces fit.
If you love me, tell me a story.
