One of the lovely people in my Kitchen Table program was having a serious hard. She was dealing with too many iguanas at once and everything was starting to be the crazy.
So I said something like awwww sweetie, that sucks.
And then I said:
Sending love and Heinzelmännchen.
And then someone else asked who my Heinzelmännchen supplier is, and if they ship internationally.
I though: whoah, why am I not in the Heinzelmännchen business?!
Because that would be the best.
Heinzelmännchen in the houuuuuse!
Quick explanation.
The Heinzelmännchen are these awesome little gnome guys. Not like the cranky house gnomes in the Harry Potter books.
No. The Heinzelmännchen do all your work for you at night so that you can relax during the day.
Except that they don’t like it when you try to catch them. And then they disappear.
So where do I get me some Heinzelmännchen?
Here’s the plan.
Notice what I need. Ask for what I need.
Write Very Personal Ads.
And long, gooey love letters to things I want.
Find out as much as I can about my relationship to time. And to rest. And to waiting. And to patience.
Because what the Heinzelmännchen do is take care of what you need, and I need to learn more about what that is.
Look for the qualities.
Figure out what qualities I receive when my life is full of Heinzelmännchen taking care of me.
Because that’s what will give me the effect of having them around.
It’s obvious stuff like ease and effortlessness.
But there is also something there about being cared for. About support. About nourishment.
Rest. Appreciation. Love. There might be some love in there too.
So if these are the missing ingredients, how do I bring more of them into my life?
By asking for them. By giving them to myself. By giving them to others. Or wishing them for others.
Become a Heinzelmännchen.
This involves a couple of different things.
I could:
Remember that, as Andrey says, “Morning begins at night”.
In other words: setting things up now to make them easier for when you actually do them.
Like putting a folded blanket on the floor now so that I can’t put off yoga in the morning because it’s too cold outside and I’m too sleepy to come up with a solution for that.
Like writing a list tonight of what I’m going to do tomorrow.
Like what Cairene talks about when she says “create a container”.
It also means doing just one thing instead of falling apart in the face of all those things.
Play!
The Heinzelmännchen get through their work so quickly because they have to be done before you wake up.
So there’s a little bit of that hide-and-seek thing going on.
Playing. And probably dancing too.
In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s also fun music and bouncing and maybe some fist-pumping.
Because Heinzelmännchen are tiny and elusive. Which means they’re kind of like trolls. Or at least related to them. And everyone knows that trolls love trance music. Doonsk doonsk doonsk!
Rest follows work.
The whole point of having Heinzelmännchen is not to do more, but to rest more.
To have cycles. To have a going in and a coming back out.
So there’s no point to my Heinzelmännchen import-export business or to getting stuff done if I’m just headed into that endless cycle of doing.
Stopping = just as important as starting.
You can’t just go.
And there is something inherently valuable in the act of pausing. Of not-doing. Of saying you know what, I’m done here.
Or I’m done for now.
In fact …
The way you come out of something is important.
I saved my yoga teacher “salary” and my bartending tips for months and months to take a training with Dharma Mittra when he came to Israel.
And I learned all sorts of useful and surprising things. But what I always think of when I think of him, aside from his beaming smile, was what he said about coming out of a pose.
He said:
The way you come out of a yoga posture tells you how you were in it.
This was a distressing thing to think about, especially since the exiting of most of my own postures involved flopping, grunting and crashing. Or relief to be done with that horrible thing. Or without much attention to anything.
This teaching was about mindfulness, of course. And grace. But it was also about endings being as important as beginnings.
And about the way you finish work. This is (for me) about finding a way to get stuff done without ending up in a bleary-eyed puddle of internet hangover and thank god it’s over.
I’m putting myself through Heinzelmännchen training.
It involves:
Noticing. Asking. Caring. Loving. Stopping. Breathing. Resting. Remembering. Playing.
And planting surprises for people.
Also for myself.
Play with me? Because I think I’m going to need a … collective.
Also a collective noun.
Because … what do you call it?
An army of Heinzelmännchen? No. Too violent.
A hammering of Heinzelmännchen? A whisking of Heinzelmännchen? A band? A colony? A troop? A consortium? A helter-skelter? A party?
You know, I kind of think it might be a party.
p.s. We should totally start a band called A Helter Skelter of Heinzelmännchen. But of course it would have to be just one guy. Possibly a former member of THRASHED.
Follow
Sign me up for a party of Heinselmnnchen.
I love the idea of “morning starts at night” + mindfulness of endings. It’s like making a fancy decoration for your container….defining the edges of the container
.-= Tara´s last post … What Can I do with Hemp Laceweight? =-.
How about a Hootenanny of Heinzelmannchen?
And since my current project already has “A Mess of” in its title, I’m now poking around in there to find the hidden iguanas. So helpful.
Thank you Havi, for this exactly-what-I-needed week.
Elizabeth
.-= Elizabeth´s last post … Hell Hath No Fury, or Watch Out for that Cliff =-.
I’d call them a “brigade”. Maybe still too militaristic? How about butchering *two* languages to make “Heinzelmännchen-dan”?
Yes, I did make that connection by thinking of the “SOS brigade”/”SOS-dan”. I’m such a geek.
If I ever meet one of these guys, I’m going to ask him what comes between 1) Collect Underpants and 3) Profit.
I have all kinds of inappropriate questions now. Like, are there Heinzelfrauchen? Or would that be a Heinzelfraulein? (My German’s not the best.)
I’m fascinated by the lazy man in the poem, who seems to have a set amount of daily work, and when the Heinzelmannchen have gone it is… done. And he responds to the situation by just lying on the couch all day. Instead of, you know, taking on twice as much work.
Is his response lazy, or is my response foolish?
And is there a market for special magic Heinzelmannchen paper on which you could write them letters about the things you don’t get around to doing, or that are troublesome for you, so they know what you’d like them to help with?
And why do they do it?
See, totally inappropriate.
It should be a pod of Heinzelmännchen taking the fairy story into consideration.
Perhaps a Huddle of Heinzelmannchen? I love the visual of a grouping of industrious Nomes standing in a circle, heads together, strategizing how to finish my work for me…..
AND Break!
This is amazing. Excellent. I love these guys. Kind of like anti-pixies (who steal things and then put them back in odd places).
.-= JoVE´s last post … Relevance, Knowledge Mobilization & Humanities Research =-.
Havi, may a Humming of Heinzelmannchen arrive on your doorstep tonight! 🙂
Thank you for the lovely reminder about completion. When I “forget” to consciously separate from what I’ve been doing, it dribbles into the rest of my day. That, in turn, keeps me from being fully present with whatever’s next–whether that’s rest or play or another stretch of work.
So, yes to coming out of the pose mindfully! It makes room for ease and flow and the surprise of grace.
Love, Hiro
.-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Meditations From the Center: 2 =-.
I’m reading a book now called “A Celebration of Bees” by Barbara Juster Esben about writing poetry with kids. The title is from something one of her kids said when he came running in the house to tell her about all the bees out in the garden. I love it as a collective noun for just about anything – what do you think? A celebration of Heinzelmannchen?
Yes! Please ship a brigade of Heinzelmännchen to me as soon as possible.
.-= Ross´s last post … Trust Gratitude Inspiration Friday #4 =-.
I’m already a gnome. And let me tell you, I hate peas. They’re so round and slippery!
.-= Eric Normand´s last post … Dance of Shiva while waiting for tea =-.
When I was a kid (there you go again, freakily conjuring up vivid images from my childhood), my parents would talk about the clams on wheels that would come and move things around in the night so we couldn’t find them. Where’s the such-and-such? I don’t know, must have been the clams on wheels.
I like the idea of the clams on wheels coming at night and doing something more useful than just moving stuff around. I will have a chat with them and see if they would like to be a little more useful in the future.
.-= Darcy´s last post … Domestic Diva despairs =-.
A helping of Heinzelmannchen (don’t know how to make the umlaut).
Thank you for reminding me.
.-= Andi´s last post … The Best Part of Waking Up =-.
A Happy of Heinzelmännchen.
Yes. That sounds right.
And no peas allowed.
A helping. A happy.
A brigade. A celebration.
A humming. A huddle. A pod.
A Hootenanny.
And some clams on wheels. Awesome.
@Willie – me too. I mean, I wonder what my life would be like if I didn’t fill any available space with more work. My head kind of hurts just thinking about that.
You guys!
Darxy- The clams on wheels concept made my morning.
Maybe a family of Heinzelmännchen.
I am imagining a Russian nesting doll set of Heinzelmannchen that hop out one after another to make the world ready for us!
So, perhaps a Matryoshka of Heinzelmännchen?
.-= Bridget´s last post … The amazing thing I learned from my mom… =-.
I’m delurking to suggest a bevy of Heinzelmannchen. I’m not quite sure why, but the thought of a bevy makes me smile.
Thanks for this post, Havi. I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment, and this made me realize part of the problem might be that I never mindfully come out of something before moving onto the next thing I need to do which makes it feel like I never truly accomplish anything.
I’m going to be looking for a bevy of Heinselmannchen. If I can’t find them, it looks like I will have to create them for myself. Thanks for showing me how.
.-= Marilla´s last post … Traveling Son Report =-.
What if a Hootenanny of Heinzelmannchen is actually a measure? (As well as a superfun thing to say.)
I bet if you would leave them more than a Tagwerk worth of work, they’d be like, nu-uh, play by the rules! So then we could define a Tagwerk as the amount of work an average Hootenanny will do in a night (with the appropriate amount of hüpfen und traben, of course.)
And then we can backwards extrapolate from that the amount of work it is reasonable to do in a day. We’d know how much a Tagwerk is. And you could do that, and then stop.
You’d have an externally validated limit on the amount of work that needs to be done in a day. Dude!
This is huge.
(And I am so deep into the silly that I’m not sure where the metaphore ends anymore. Nicely done, thanks.)
How did I go through life until now not knowing about the Heinzelmännchen? What a wonderful story and an even better metaphor! It makes me think: what other similar useful metaphors can I bring into my life? I smell a fresh post brewing…
.-= Michelle´s last post … Monday Mapping: What I’m Working On This Week =-.
Brilliant. I love this. I may start a ritual now in which, whenever I’ve been working hard and am tired and need to stop, I drop what I’m doing and declare, “Time to let the Heinzelmannchen* take over.” I can even picture them waiting on the sidelines, like little tag-team wrestlers, just waiting for me to take a break so they can get in the game and make the magic happen.
And yes, yes, yes, please count me in as a member of the happy, helping, humming hootenanny!
*(Note to self: learn how to put the umlaut into the HTML…)
.-= Kathleen Avins´s last post … Liberation =-.
Ok, in my mind Heinzelmännchen is the singular and plural form, so a collective noun isn’t needed. Not sure why, just is. Also, consider this a formal request for the next coloring book…what better one than Heinzelmännchen???? As always, thank you.
.-= Kristen K.´s last post … Meatless Monday: Lentil & Tomato Soup =-.
A pocketful of Heinzelmännchen. Or, oooh oooh! A Hammentasche of Heinzelmännchen! Yum.
Over here in England-land, we have hobgoblins for housework. Up here in the northern parts, we remember that hob = hearth; I was nonplussed the first time I spoke to people from Down London Way and they didn’t know what I meant when I said I’d left a pot on the hob.
I really, really need to work out how to entice a hobgoblin to our house and make him happy.
An efficiency of Heinzelmännchen?
A pride of Heinzelmännchen?
A shyness of Heinzelmännchen?
Clearly, it’s a hopscotch of Heinzelmännchen. Woooot!
.-= chicsinger simone´s last post … Now is the month of Maying…Lilac edition. =-.
I was recently introduced to the Swedish Tomten which sounds very similar. Astrid Lindgren has a lovely children’s book in which the tomten goes about caring for a farm while its inhabitants are sleeping speaking “the secret, silent language” of all the animals. He’s much more sedate than the Heinzelmannchen- but I liked the idea of having one around so much that I made a needle-felted version. He sits on the cupboard in the living room.
What I really need is to turn my Malignancy of Goblins into a Helping of Heinzelmännchen somehow — so instead of just worrying and scaring me, they can be doing useful backstage work for me while I sleep!
.-= Amy Crook´s last post … The Value of Staying Small =-.
Wow, I keep mulling over, “the way you come out of something is important” – hard to articulate how deeply that touched me (in a good way). Must start Heinzelmännchen training immediately!
My contribution to the collective noun series:
a host of Heinzelmännchen
a hot bed(rapid growth;extensive activity) of Heinzelmännchen
a heaping of Heinzelmännchen
a heyday of Heinzelmännchen
Thanks Havi for writing posts that biggify my brain cells…
That was absolutely delicious! Even better, that kind of deliciousness makes for excellent food for thought. I can tell that my brain will be happily snacking on these ideas for a little while. 🙂
.-= Josiane´s last post … Middle of the night musings =-.
@ Elizabeth: I vote for Hootenanny of Heinzelmannchen; I might say Hooty-Heinze for short. And fun.
@Willie Hewes: Yes! A Tagwerk! I see myself gathering my Hooty-Heinze around me and tossing out tagwerks to the eager, smiling faces.
Thanks, Havi, for talking about the importance of endings. I’ve just decided to write a blog series on my experience in performing community theatre, and while it focuses on prep and performance, I was thinking maybe I should talk about what happens when a show closes. Now I definitely will!
How about a hoopla of Heinzelmannchen?
Ooh, I just saw hootenanny up above. Love that!
Regardless, I’m coming to the party!
I think I spent the first decade of my adult years subconsciously waiting for elves (Heinzelmannchen) to clean my apartment for me, like the elves who made the shoemaker’s shoes in the Grimm fairy tale. It was actually quite a revelation when I realized there weren’t any elves, and I’d have to be the elves myself.
The state of my housekeeping will tell you that part of me is still in resistance to this notion. :-}
.-= Melissa Dinwiddie´s last post … Your Bliss is your responsibility—don’t shut it off! =-.
I vote for a “gaggle of Heinzelmännchen”.
In fact, since this is German (and I base this on exactly 0 years of studying German), I think we ought to make it one huge word: Heinzelmännchengaggle.
But really, I’m just relieved that the international shipping is FREE (with training, of course).
Three cheers for Heinzelmännchen!
I actually thought you meant a collective *of* Heinzelmännchen, and I thought that was just perfect. Tonight I’ll say, “Well, it’s time to call in the Heinzelmännchen collective!” and wait for the magic to start.
This whole post was brilliant in a thousand different ways. Thanks, Havi.
A flurry of Heinzelmannchen might be nice. Like a little burst of snowflakes that comes sweeping in out of nowhere and transforms the landscape.
But I’m also fond of Heinzelmannchen Collective–especially if they all had little tiny matching kerchiefs. And danced while they worked.
I’m also thinking of an old Sesame Street segment: “We All Live in a Capital I.” You can see it on YouTube, if you’re not already humming it.
It’s funny that you post this, because I think Heinzelmensch is my ideal job description. (Okay, sand tester for beach resorts is my ideal job description, but…) Getting things done and then disappearing before dawn so that the person I’m helping can relax? Sounds grand. No thanks or compensation, just enough to eat and a barn to sleep in. It’d be a fun life, and the work – and seeing my chosen Person be happy – would be its own reward. 🙂
Then again, some people wouldn’t be happy with all their work taken away… 😉
.-= Chris Anthony´s last post … On adulthood =-.
Wow. Thanks so much for this post, Havi, which brought up one of my favorite childhood memories. In the small town in which I grew up, an older couple had built an enormous fountain that lit up with changing colored lights at night, and grouped all around the fountain and the lawn were a troop, a party, a tribe of Heinzelmannchen. My parents would take us to get ice cream cones and then we’d go past their house and see where the Heinzelmannchen were that night (they got moved around). They were totally cute and looked really cheerful, as if nothing could blow their cool. I think they’re my new role models.
.-= Mrs. Ditter´s last post … Pre-Summer Mothering Angst, or How Can I Enjoy the Spring Flowers When Summer is Looming Over Me Like a Big Horrible Scary Looming Thing =-.
I want a twinkle of heinzelmannchen please toot sweet – to continue the polyglot theme!
I like “hoopla”!
And, as usual, I need this because I KNOW that I am more productive when I pause and observe..but of course I’m not doing that as much as a should. (Maybe because I live with 2 guys with ADHD and they are not able to ‘pause’ at all).
Will work on finding the place and time to stop and breathe so I can be more productive….
.-= Susan´s last post … Marketing Your Private Practice: Create a marketing list =-.
I actually thought you meant a collective *of* Heinzelmännchen, and I thought that was just perfect. Tonight I’ll say, “Well, it’s time to call in the Heinzelmännchen collective!” and wait for the magic to start.
This whole post was brilliant in a thousand different ways. Thanks, Havi.