A New Fable for all HSPs and Sensitive Creatives, Courtesy of Ane Axford.

Are you a highly sensitive person who has grown up being told that old story of sensitivity being a weakness, a fault-line running through you?

Do you feel a longing to change what others have told you about you, looking only from the outside, only from their limited understanding? Do you have a gnawing sense that life would have been very different if you had been taught to value what was unique about you as an HSP?

If you are this point, wanting to re-member the lost parts of you, wanting to rewrite your own understanding of what it means to be a highly sensitive person, then this week’s post will resonate with you.

Today, I want to share an achingly beautiful multi-media story written and narrated by Ane Axford, with illustrations by Gibson Rose and music by Bret Hanson. It is one of the most beautiful metaphors I have come across to help us understand what it means to be highly sensitive and creative. Let’s begin!

The New Story of Sensitivity

In what I think of as a children’s story also meant for adults, in the tradition of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book The Little Prince, Ane Axford gives us a modern fable that takes us into the heart of our sensitivity. In this story, the main character is a giant, who does not even know what the word “giant” means, who frequently disturbs others because of how big she is. From her clumsy first steps to her final belonging, to me, this felt like the distilled essence of what it means to journey as an HSP.

So, let’s hand it over to Ane Axford and her co-creators:

Maybe, you, like me, teared up at certain points. Maybe, some lines jumped out and spoke to you personally.

Some of the lines that spoke to me were:

“The giants often hid, lots of time on purpose and sometimes not on purpose. As weird as it may seem, giants are experts at hiding because they are so big that they can be in plain sight and totally missed.” 

“Giants didn’t know how big the things they did were because they didn’t know how big they were.”

“Being so tall meant that they could see so much all the time and they didn’t want to see it all, all the time.” 

“She felt like she wanted more than relaxation. She wanted to do things, to have fun. She wanted things that were tasty, beautiful and pleasant to the senses. She had never wanted pleasure before. She had just been trying to get by, trying to find a way to live. It was thrilling to play and taste and touch and see and hear and smell all the beauty there was for her all around. Especially because she was so big, there was so much she could sense. Now that she was not afraid of her size, she used it to enjoy everything without guilt or shame or embarrassment.”  

I have to say I loved almost each and every line, so this is just a little sample of what all I did love.

I also loved all the symbols that appeared. For example, the circle showed up when the Giant had started untwisting, taking care of herself. The Circle denotes the Self, wholeness and harmony. It’s fascinating that the same symbols come up from somewhere deep inside us as we make our own journeys towards becoming more integrated. Circles and spirals started feeling attractive to me a few years ago. Circles are often understood to represent wholeness across different cultures. Spirals are thought by some to denote the feminine path while some people think that they denote the integration of the masculine and the feminine principles (the straight masculine line combines with the circular feminine).

I loved the story, the drawings, the music and the sheer artistry in this children’s tale for the child who lives inside all of us.

I am not sure why I didn’t share this story on the blog earlier. I came across this a long time back, and was, in fact, part of Ane Axford’s Numinous and Voluminous project. You can check out my “story in photographs” about my own journey as an HSP and sensitive creative here on Ane’s website I admit it’s quite vague but I think the photographs convey the essence of what I was trying to convey. That reminds me that instead of trying to fix other people’s problems, I have to channel my giant-sized sensitivity into creativity. I am most happy only when I am creating, writing, doing photography, dancing. There is a lot of beauty in this world, and that’s mine to experience too.

What do you think? Were you as moved as I was by this beautiful re-telling and re-framing of the HSP experience? I hope that Ane’s words reached out to you like a balm, if you needed that or like rain, moistening something that might have dried out. I really love this tale, and I hope it finds its way to more hearts that need its warm comfort and its soothing voice.