Kafka, The Little Girl & The Lost Doll — A Heartwarming Story About Loss & The Lessons We Can Learn From It
The touching story of Franz Kafka, the girl & the doll & life lessons from the beautiful story
There have been many edited social media posts about this touching & heartwarming story of Franz Kafka & the little girl who lost her doll. It’s an emotional story of dealing with loss & how to recover from any significant loss in your life.
As the story goes, at 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) the famous Czech novelist & writer came across a little girl in Steglitz Park in Berlin. The little girl was crying her eyes out because she had lost her favourite doll.
Seeing the distraught little girl in the park, Kafka decided to intervene & entertain her & began to help the girl find the doll. After searching for some time, Kafka told the little girl to meet him in the same park the very next day and they would look for the doll again.
After Kafka returned home, a brilliant idea struck him & so he wrote a letter pretending to be from the doll & met the child the next day. After another unsuccessful search attempt at finding the missing doll, Kafka gave the girl the letter pretending it was written by the doll that read, “Please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”
This started a series of several meetings between Kafka & the little girl towards the end of his life. Kafka would meet the girl regularly & read out letters supposedly written by the doll with elaborate adventures, stories and conversations which the girl adored & looked forward to each day.
Finally, Kafka bought another doll from a store in Berlin & gifted the little girl the new doll saying her old doll had returned.
However, after looking at the doll the little girl said, “It doesn’t look like my doll at all.”
Kafka gave the girl another note saying, “My travels have changed me.” The girl immediately hugged the new doll & took her happily back home full of love & excitement that her beloved doll had returned from her adventures.
A year later Kafka died. He didn’t marry or have children either.
Several years after Kafka’s death, the little girl, then an adult, found a little note inside the new doll signed by Kafka that read, “Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”
Lessons We Can Learn From The Story Of Kafka, The Girl & The Doll
Life Is Too Short
Life is fleetingly short. Most of us don’t realise it because we’re so engrossed in our work & our pursuits of achieving financial success or other life goals that we put aside important things like family time & spending time with our loved ones.
Another book I read called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, quantified our lifespan as being a maximum of 4000 weeks. That’s the average lifespan if you live until you’re 76. Knowing that we have just 4000 weeks to live, give or take, can alter the way you spend your time drastically.
As this quote by Haruki Murakami reads:
Kafka died when he was only 40, which further suggests that life is considerably short & that anything can happen. So ensure that you spend your time wisely & doing the things you love, with the people you love.
Travelling Is One Of The Best Uses Of Money & Time & Helps In Personal Growth
Just like Kafka’s doll, we should all aim to travel as much as we can. Most people want to travel the world but only a fraction of people actually do.
Travelling is quite literally one of the best uses of money. So if you’ve accumulated enough money go travel & see the world. There’s an inherent charm to sitting in a Bohemian cafe or watching a sunset on a Spanish island, or getting lost (and found) in the forests of South America or seeing the Aurora Borealis in Iceland.
Just like the doll, your adventures will give you stories for a lifetime & will change you for the better. So go solo, take your partner, or take your family, but go & see places you’ve always wanted to see.
If my income as a writer & musician was enough, I’d be travelling all over the world, but at the moment it’s only enough to travel across India. Also, I work remotely only; I refuse on-site jobs so any time I need Vitamin Sea, or need a great view & a break, I take my laptop, DJ controller & guitar & hit the road.
Travelling also helps you grow & seeing the world & meeting new people from different cultures, in different places around the world all help you grow spiritually & wholly. We come from a long line of explorers & travellers, so it’s in our DNA. And just like Kafka’s story of the doll, it’ll change us for the better.
Loss Is Almost Certain But Love & Peace Comes With Time
Losing a loved one can be tragic & heartbreaking. But life goes on, & after we’ve grieved enough it’s important to keep living life & doing the best you can trudging forward bravely & at peace with the past.
Last year, I lost my grandmother Mrs. Kamala Shankar. She was the epitome of selfless & unconditional love & she loved her family & her books & music. She died at the age of 80. Somehow though, our entire family on my mother’s side met in Chennai to celebrate her 80th birthday with a huge celebration event in a hall in Chennai inviting over 100 people.
It was also where I performed for her & the crowd on my guitar for a live audience for the first time. She died one week after the function, quietly & at peace in her bed just after all of us family members left for home.
My family & especially my mother & her siblings are still grieving from her loss one year on, but time has healed; that’s the most important thing that time eventually heals everything.
So whatever your loss may be, you just have to acknowledge it as being part of life & live on to your best ability. We all have our paths, and I guess you just have to believe that eventually everything will be alright & live in the moment as much as you can. Just know that eventually, the pain will heal.
The past is mainly for learning its lessons, and focusing on the lesson instead of the pain & negative feelings or thoughts about past events will help you grow.
Embrace The Unknown: It’s Where The Growth Is
Love, peace & joy come in ways unknown & it’s in the unknown where growth lies. I recently stumbled upon another great quote, which suggested that you’re growing if you’re unsure about what’s next.
Kafka stumbled upon the girl by chance on a stroll in the park, and in what was his final year to live, it gave him the experience of parenting a child despite him not having a wife or kids himself.
For the little girl, Kafka appeared out of the blue & gave her solace, kindness & some cherishable childhood moments.
The point is, that the unknown is where growth lies. You never know who you’ll meet or how they could enrich your life & the same is true for events & moments.
Embracing the unknown is just like embracing the uncertainties of travelling, yes you have a basic idea or path to follow of where to go, but what you experience when you reach your destination is all random, which makes the experience even more exciting & fulfilling.
The story of Kafka & the girl’s lost doll remains a beautiful subplot in the life of the celebrated writer & despite occurring over a century ago, it reminds us of the delights of life if we’re willing to accept the bad & uncertain along with the good.
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