The Pretty Castle That Got Hurt: A German Postcard Story About Kindness & Bullying

Hello, my dear friends

Today, my heart feels a little quiet.
Not sad, not happy, just quiet.
A little bit thoughtful.

So, I went to look inside my treasure box.
Do you know what I keep inside?
It is my box of postcards, my paper windows to the world!
Each postcard is like a tiny story from a faraway place.

I opened the box slowly, and one postcard caught my eye.
It felt like the right one for a quiet day.

A castle in the forest

It is a picture from Germany.
On the postcard, there is a very beautiful, big building.
It looks like a princess castle!

The walls are white, the roofs are red, and the towers have round green tops, like scoops of green ice cream! Hehehe.

The castle is hiding inside a huge green forest.
So many trees, tall and soft, like a green blanket wrapped around it.
There is grass too, bright and clean, like a carpet for fairies to walk on.
It looks so peaceful. So quiet. So safe.

Like a secret garden where nothing bad can happen.

The story behind the picture

I held the picture in my hand and looked at it for a long time.
It made my heart feel calm, like when you listen to soft rain.
But then, I felt curious.

“What is this place?” I wondered.
“Who lives there? What story does it tell?”

So, I called my wise storyteller, Cik Gem.
“Cik Gem,” I asked, “please tell me the story of this quiet castle in the forest.”

And Cik Gem smiled her gentle smile.
Then she began to tell me a story.
It was a very old story.
And like many old stories, it was not always happy.
But inside it, there was a beautiful lesson, a light that never goes out.

The Abbey on the holy hill

“This building,” said Cik Gem, “is not really a castle for a princess.
It is called Andechs Abbey, or Kloster Andechs in German.

An Abbey is a big, special house where monks live.
They spend their lives praying, helping others, and keeping peace in their hearts.
This Abbey sits on a holy hill in a lovely part of Germany called Bavaria.”

A long, long, long time ago, more than a thousand years!... people believed that this hill was special.
A holy place.

Later, they built a church there.
People came from far, far away, walking for many days, sometimes many weeks.

Why did they come?
Because they believed there were special, holy things inside the Abbey.
Things that could bring them closer to God.
Things that could help them when they were sad or sick.

The Abbey became a place of hope.
A place of peace.
A place where hearts could heal.
Like a hospital, but for the soul.

The time of darkness

Years passed.
The Abbey grew bigger and more beautiful.
It was full of songs, and prayers, and lovely art.
It became a shining light on the hill.

But then… bad times came.
Sometimes, the world can be noisy and cruel.

There were wars. Big, angry wars.
People who didn’t care about kindness or peace came to the Abbey.
They broke things.
They burned things.
They hurt the Abbey.
The shining light became dark.

Imagine your favourite toy, the one you love the most.
Now imagine someone comes and breaks it on purpose.
How would you feel?
Sad? Angry? Lost?

That is how the people felt about their Abbey.

Rebuilding with love

But the story didn’t end there.
When the bad times were over, the good people came back.

They cleaned the mess.
They fixed the broken walls.
They painted the rooms again.
Slowly, slowly, they made the Abbey beautiful again,
even more beautiful than before!

They filled it with hope again.
With love.
With music.
With prayers.

And the light came back to the hill.

This didn’t happen just once.
Many times in history, the Abbey was hurt.
And many times, the people rebuilt it.

They never gave up.
They never stopped believing.
They never let darkness win.

A lesson for all hearts

I looked again at my postcard.
The Abbey looked so calm and strong.
But now, I knew its secret story.
It had been broken.
It had been healed.
It remembered the pain, and it still shone.

That is the lesson it teaches us.

Even beautiful, holy things can be hurt by unkindness.
By anger.
By fighting.
Just like people.

Our hearts are like that Abbey.
They are meant to shine with peace and love.
But sometimes, others come with mean words or actions.
That is called bullying.

When someone is unkind

Bullying is like those bad people in the war.
It tries to break our hearts.
It tries to make our light go dark.
It makes us feel small.
Scared.
Sad.
Alone.

Here in Malaysia, we sometimes hear sad stories too.
Stories about children, or even grown-ups, who are unkind to others.
They tease.
They shout.
They push.
They say hurtful words online.
They make someone feel bad just because that person is different.

But bullying is not okay.
It is not funny.
It is not “just playing.”
It is hurting.
It breaks someone’s beautiful Abbey inside.

The light that never goes out

But the story of Andechs Abbey gives us hope.

It tells us that being hurt is not your fault.
It tells us that even when you feel broken, your light is still inside you, waiting to shine again.

It tells us that healing takes time.
The Abbey took a long time to rebuild.
Hearts do too.
So be patient with yourself.

It also tells us that we need each other.
The Abbey was rebuilt because many people worked together.
We need friends.
We need family.
We need teachers, good people who help us heal.

Talk to someone you trust.
Don’t keep the hurt inside.

And most of all, the Abbey teaches us that kindness is stronger than meanness.
Light is stronger than darkness.
Hope is stronger than sadness.

Keeping our light shining

Just like the people rebuilt the Abbey with love and care, we can also build our world with kindness.
Be the person who helps fix, not the one who breaks.

If you see someone being bullied, be brave.
Speak up.
Be a friend.

If you are being bullied, please remember this:
You are not alone.
You are precious.
You are strong.
Your light is still there, always.

Reach out for help.
Let others help you rebuild.

The Abbey inside our hearts

Now, when I look at this postcard from Germany, I see more than a pretty building.
I see a story of courage and hope.
A story of faith and love.
A story of people who never gave up.

It reminds me that we all have a beautiful Abbey inside our hearts.
Sometimes it gets hurt.
Sometimes it feels broken.
But we can rebuild it, again and again.

So let’s promise to take care of our own Abbey inside us.
And let’s promise to be kind to the Abbeys inside other people’s hearts too.

That is how we keep the light shining bright,
here in Malaysia, and all over the world.