The Girl Who Was Born with Glue in Her Brain
Once, many years ago, I heard a voice in my head. Since then, I’ve heard many. Some people say it’s crazy to hear voices in your head.
I think what these people are trying to say is that no one is talking nearly enough about all these voices in all of our heads.
We hear voices in the world, and we also hear voices in the world of our head. Sometimes the voices from the world get into our head and it’s hard to tell which voices are ours and which belong to others. This is where the suffering begins, especially for some of us who are very good hearers.
Some people have 20/20 vision, and some people have 20/20 hearing. I think the people with 20/20 hearing have a gift—they can hear the wisdom they were born with and then share it to remind others of their own.
But so often, these people are never told they have this kind of hearing. And because they are not celebrated for this, they hear only what the people in the world say is wrong with them, and they go with that.
I remember growing up and hearing wonderful words of inspiration from my heart. But the problem was, I had a lot of loud people in my life who said very different things.
My own voice said, “Share this poem.” The voices around me said, “Who are you to share this poem?”
My own voice was loud, but theirs were louder.
My own voice needed quiet to hear; their voices interrupted my quiet.
Thankfully the loud voices in my world liked to punish me by sending me to my room all alone. They didn’t realize that in this silence, I was tuning into my own voice, my friend within.
But it took many years before I began to believe my own voice was more valuable for me than those other voices. And it took many more years to realize that these other voices weren’t really trying to hurt me—they were merely sharing the unpleasant voices that theyhad internalized from other hurt people.
The Girl Who Was Born with Glue in Her Brain is a memoir of sorts, of my own journey learning to focus the attention of my listening on messages that are life-affirming.
I hope if you’re reading this book, you will realize much earlier than I did that the message of your heart is a gift—and that those with 20/20 hearing will value your gift, and they will say thank you when they receive it.
Once there was a girl who was born with glue in her brain.
At first she didn’t know about the glue. She only knew that something seemed wrong about her brain, because so many of her thoughts seemed to get stuck to it.
No matter where she happened to be, she would notice herself thinking these same thoughts, again and again.
Even if she tried not to think these thoughts, there they were . . .
. . . regardless of what was happening in the world around her.
And because she was embarrassed to tell anyone, she kept the problem to herself.
As the years continued on, so did her problem. And she began to grow very, very tired of listening to this handful of thoughts.
Finally, she decided to do something about it.
First she tried drinking certain liquids, hoping they might help loosen the thoughts.
But this wound up not being a very good long-term solution.
Then she tried painting.
And yoga.
And even praying.
But nothing worked. The thoughts remained stuck.
Then one day she overheard some people talking about a specialist who’d helped them with their own stuck thoughts. So she gathered up her courage, looked him up, and made an appointment.
She sat for hours in the specialist’s waiting room.
Finally, the specialist arrived and x-rayed the girl’s brain, and for the very first time, she found out what was going on.
“What I see here,” the specialist said, “is a layer of glue on your brain. You, have Glue Brain.”
“Glue Brain?” asked the girl.
“Yes. And deeply embedded in this glue,” he continued, “are about six or seven thoughts. My guess? They’ve been stuck for years.”
“Decades,” the girl agreed with a sigh.
“Now, if you look closely,” the specialist explained. “We can precisely identify
each thought. For instance, this one says, ‘I can’t do it.’ ”
The girl nodded.
“This one says, ‘I am so lonely.’ ”
“Yep.”
“Underneath that: ‘I’ll never get what I want,’ ‘No one wants to be near me,’ ‘Everything I try never works out.’ ”
“It’s okay,” the girl interrupted. “I know the thoughts, remember? They’ve been stuck in my head . . .That’s why I’m here.”
“Oh, right,” the specialist said.
“So what do I do?”
“I suggest a thought transplant.”
“What?”
“Well, unfortunately, it’s impossible to get rid of the glue.”
The girl looked disappointed.
“But with a thought transplant, we can at least fix your unhappiness about it.”
“How does it work?”
“Our treatment will consist of sticking new thoughts to the glue in your brain. Using this method, the new thoughts will cover the old thoughts, and you’ll be cured of your suffering.”
“But what sorts of new thoughts?”
“Well”—the specialist began thumbing through a manual—“let’s try ‘I can do it.’ ”
“Okay, ‘I can do it,’ ” the girl repeated.
“Now we’ll add ‘I am connected to others.’ ”
“That feels good.”
“On top of that, ‘I love my ideas, and I’m excited to share them.’ ”
“That’s true!”
“Of course it is. It’s one of the more popular replacement thoughts.”
“I can see why.”
“Next, ‘I honor my perspective as well as the perspective of others.’ That one’s not too popular with the defense industry just yet.”
“I bet.”
“And let’s top it off with something like, ‘I create situations that are fulfilling to me and to others.’ ”
“Wow, you’re good!”
“Thank you. That will be five hundred dollars.”
After her appointment, the girl walked out into the world. I am connected to others, she thought. And suddenly, the people passing by felt like friends! And when she smiled, they smiled back! It’s true, she exclaimed to herself.
New thoughts really do create new experiences!
At her favorite café, she tried another one. I love my ideas and I’m excited to share them, she thought. Sure enough, the person at the next table asked what she was working on!
And when the girl shared a project she’d never told anyone about, the other person said she had a similar project she’d never told anyone about—and they decided to collaborate!
Then later, when she saw someone crying in the grocery store, instead of walking by, she decided to add another thought to her brain:
I believe in making a difference.
And so she asked the person if she needed someone to talk with, and the person smiled and said yes!
That night in her bed, the girl had another new thought :
Today was the best day I think I’ve ever had.
And from then on, even though she knew her old thoughts were still right there if she wanted to dig them out, her new thoughts were there too, reminding her it really wasn’t worth it.
The End
—JLK