“I read this book in an evening & couldn’t put it down as I was taken on a magical journey by the Elephant at Jessica’s Heart” Stephen Wish, Polar Bear Community.
“If you like animals and meditation then I highly recommend this book.” Jayne Thorpe.
The ‘Ele’ book summary
Jessica had an idyllic childhood until she turned nine. Then her life fell apart when she had a brain haemorrhage. Her book, ‘The Elephant of My Heart’ is the story that emerged as Jessica found a pathway through this trauma. She was introduced, in a Mindfulness Meditation to an animal totem, her Elephant, the ‘Animal of Her Heart’!
This inner elephant & all her other animals took her in the gentlest of ways back to her trauma. They taught her that the scars that criss-cross her head can be seen in a different way because now they’re sutured with a black panther’s whisker & held by a dragonfly!
If you’re interested in finding out more The Elephant of My Heart is available in paperback, kindle or audiobook!
Extract of “Elephant of My Heart”
My name is Jessica. I had a brain haemorrhage. That’s like a bruise but in your brain. The problem with bruises in your brain is that there’s nowhere for the blood to go, so I got very sick. They had to do an operation on me to stop the blood vessel from leaking.
I should have got better but I didn’t. My head began to swell and they had to do another operation on me. This operation put a plastic tube inside my head and then into my stomach.
Then I was taken back to my room in Intensive Care. This is where Mum said I would recover. It’s a small room painted pure white with a large window overlooking a lake. I can’t see the lake because I’m lying in bed. Mum and Dad have just gone out with a nurse to talk to the doctors.
That was when I heard the knocking on my door. I lay there wondering who was going to answer it. It continued and I waited. No one must have been able to hear it for they didn’t answer it. I couldn’t wait anymore. I decided that whoever was behind that door needed to be let in. I got up out of bed, and went across to the door. It looked a perfectly normal door into the corridor, but when I turned the handle and pushed open the door, there stood an elephant.
‘Hello,’ I said laughing. ‘You’re an elephant!’ He stood quietly, gently swaying his trunk. ‘But if he’s an elephant,’ I thought, ‘how did he knock on the door?’ The sensitive tip of his trunk swung up and wrapped itself around the metal doorknocker and promptly knocked again. ‘But you understood what I thought?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘You can speak!’
‘Yes,’ he replied, and he uncurled his trunk from the knocker and gently wrapped it around my waist. His breath was soft as he nuzzled the tip of his trunk into my hands. ‘I am the animal of your heart.’
‘Wow, you’re the animal of my heart? I didn’t know I had an animal of my heart!’ I said excitedly.
‘Yes, and if you climb up on to my back, I will take you to meet all your other animals.’
I wanted to say yes, but hesitated. I looked back at the bed and at my parents who were just coming back into the room. ‘Can they come too?’ I asked.
‘No, this journey is for you alone,’ he said.
‘Will I come straight back, as soon as we’ve met all my animals?’
‘Yes.’
‘They will still be here when I get back?’
‘Yes,’ ‘OK, but how do I get on to your back?’
I squealed as I sailed into the air. His trunk had tightened round my waist and up I had gone! He plonked me on the top of his huge head. ‘Move back to my neck and put your feet down between my ears,’ he said. I crawled back and found that my legs fitted snugly down between his ears.
‘Wasn’t that difficult?’ I asked once there.
‘What do you mean, difficult?’
‘Well, wasn’t I heavy?’
‘No, you are very small and I am very big. You are easy to lift.’
I looked up as the elephant stepped into a forest of tropical green. There were huge trees hung with enormous plate-sized leaves. These took my eyes up to a tiny bit of blue sky between the tall, tall trees. ‘Are you comfortable?’ the elephant asked, sensing my movement.
‘Yes, thank you.’
‘Good,’ he replied, ‘I’m going to move now so hold on to the top of my ears.’ My hands found the edges of his huge ears. They were like soft, crinkly pieces of grey paper, but warm. My hands gripped tightly for I was uncertain of just how my elephant would move.
He walked quickly through the forest. Though initially uncertain, so far above the ground on his back, I found my elephant’s footsteps gentle. My eyes were stuck on the forest around me, and the birds that kept flying past, which I heard long before I saw them. Their cries were long, loud screeches. Turning towards this din I could see splashes of colour darting out from a dark spot amongst the trees. Then they’d be upon us, bright streaks of red, purple, yellow and blue across the green backdrop of the forest.
The elephant stopped. We were at the edge of a river. It was wide and shallow, running fast, dappled with white water and sunshine. He carefully walked into the centre of the river. ‘You must not be afraid of this river,’ he said, ‘for it is yours. Its water is your life energy and into it you must go.’ He sat down, rolled gently over and I promptly fell in.
I came up splashing! ‘That wasn’t fair,’ I giggled. ‘I didn’t have a chance!’
‘I know,’ said the elephant, who wrapped his trunk around me and dunked me again. He brought me up out of the water and stood me upright on a little sandbank.
‘I’m a drowned rat!’ I said, outraged. He stepped closer to me
‘You are not a rat, nor have you drowned. You are a little wet human with your hands on your hips,’ he said, and his trunk gently nuzzled them off. ‘On to my back again,’ the elephant said, and I was soon sailing into the air to be placed ever so gently back on his head. I sat down, quickly grabbing the top of his ears as his huge body began moving underneath me. We walked out deeper into my river, to the sound of the chattering parrots and began walking downstream.