No I am afraid I could not kill the purple dragon. Excuse me? I can hear you saying. Read on for the whole story that happened to me quite a few years ago and it will all become clear!
I Could Not Kill The Purple Dragon
The Need For Therapy
About thirty years ago, I had suffered with a chest and throat infection for a long time. I was left with a continual sore throat and cough. There was no more the doctor could do to help me medically, he said it was a question of time to let my lungs heal. A good friend suggested I should go see a therapist who specialized in acupressure to see if that would help with the healing process.
What is Acupressure?
Acupressure is an alternative therapy similar to acupuncture. It involves the therapists working with the meridians and pressure points in the body. An acupuncturist inserts a needle to stimulate a point. Someone practicing acupressure stimulates the same points with pressure, usually using their finger tips. Over the years, since this event occurred, I have had some great acupressure treatments but this, my first introduction, left a lot to be desired. And all because I could not kill the purple dragon!
The Appointment
Everything went well at my appointment with the therapist until she began to focus on possible reasons for my continual cough. She asked me if I was angry and I responded that I wasn’t. I couldn’t think of anything I was obviously angry about. She said that she felt that my cough was caused by failure to express my hidden anger. She wanted to try a visualization exercise to see if it would help.
As someone who regularly meditates, often utilizing visualizations I had no problem giving this a try. As you may have noted from my story writing (see for example Three Lost Kittens), I have an active imagination. In spite of my school report claims to the contrary.
Enter The Purple Dragon
We made a start and everything was fine. Then we got to the point where the therapist said I should now cough out my anger and tell her what it looks like.
Well, dear reader, it was an 18 inch high purple dragon.
The dragon sat in front of me making ‘pffft, spfft’ noises like a little kitten does when it is cornered. As it made the noise, sparks and little puffs of smoke came out of his nostrils. It was trying hard to look fierce and failing miserably. Game of Thrones level of threatening he wasn’t.
I laughed, because if this was my anger was it something to really worry about? Which I don’t think was quite the response the therapist was expecting. She accused me of not taking things seriously. Which made me laugh all the more. Then she said it.
Kill The Dragon
“I want you to kill the dragon. That will get rid of your anger.”
This was the point I knew I was not coming back to see this therapist again. We hadn’t, to my mind, even established that it was hidden anger that really was the problem. We also hit a bit of moral problem.
I could not kill the purple dragon. Not in a million years. As a Buddhist who doesn’t kill anything if she can help it (no, not even mosquitoes) there was no way I could visualize killing something. Even a make believe purple dragon. I told the therapist this and by now I could see she thought I was being deliberately difficult. She said I had to come up with a solution.
The Dorothy Solution
Well chums, I came up with a typically ‘Dorothy’, practical solution. I removed the dragon’s fire as he was rubbish at it anyway and was likely to hurt himself. I shrunk him down to two inches high and I sent him out to play in the garden. Last I saw of him the flowers were moving as he was walking through the flower bed giggling.
The therapist gave up, took her money and I left, never to see her again. The cough cleared up on its own after a few months.
And I still get the giggles when I imagine the two inch purple dragon playing in that garden.
Like The Purple Dragons In This Article?
The story comes from some old notebooks of mine that I found which included some great tales of my lifestyle at different times in my life! I knew immediately the images I wanted to illustrate this dragon story with. The two purple dragon images for my blog were kindly supplied by my artist friend MM Anderson and they are perfect for the story. They are both available as prints, just click on the image to go to the purchase page. You can see more of her work here.
Before you go
My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound, an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.
You can follow me on Facebook.
Thank you for reading!
What a wonderful tale Dorothy! I am honored that you chose my work to accompany it. I always thought my imagination was good but I think you have me beat.?
It was lovely to collaborate with you Linda. I wish my old school teachers could see your comment, honestly every school report said I lacked imagination. They had no idea!
“Last I saw of him the flowers were moving as he was walking through the flower bed giggling.” —
What a wonderful story and ending, Dorothy; or should I say beginning? 🙂
Sounds like you had the wisdom you needed in you!
Great pics via MM, btw ?
Glad you liked it – and I knew immediately that MM Anderson’s two pastels were just what it needed so I am glad you like them too.
A really nice story and Linda’s little purple dragons illustrated it well.
Thanks Roy, glad you liked it.