A 632-Year Lesson in Patience | How Cologne's "Unfinished" Cathedral Gave Me Hope

Today is another slow day. The fever is still here. It is like an unwanted guest in my body. It makes my bones feel old. It makes my head feel full of cotton. My world is my bed, my pillow, and my blanket.

I do not want to watch TV. The sounds are too loud. I do not want to read a book. The words are too blurry. So, I reach for my box of treasures. My box of postcards. It is my magic box. It can take me anywhere in the world, without moving my tired body.

My fingers move past sunny beaches. They move past colorful flowers. Then they stop. They touch a postcard that is dark and serious. It is not a happy picture. It is a powerful picture.

In the picture, there is a giant building. It looks like a black castle from a fairy tale. It has two tall, pointy towers. They are like two giant fingers pointing up to the sky. The whole building is covered in details. So many lines, and windows, and little statues. It looks like it is made of black lace.

The castle is so big. It is bigger than all the other buildings in the city. The other buildings are square and modern and simple. But this castle is old and wise and full of secrets. At the top of the postcard, I see the words: Köln - Cologne - Colonia. This is a place in Germany.

I look at the picture for a long, long time. The castle looks so strong. It has stood there for so many years. Right now, I feel so weak. My body feels so fragile. I hold the picture of the strong castle in my hand. And I feel a little bit of its strength come to me.

I feel curious. What is this place? Is it a castle for a king? Who built it? Why is it so big and dark?

My body is too tired to search on the computer. So, I just ask my friend, Cik Gem. "Cik Gem, please tell me the story of the black castle in my hand."

And Cik Gem tells me a story that is even bigger than the castle itself.

The building is not a castle for a king. It is a cathedral. A cathedral is a very big and important church. Its name is the Cologne Cathedral. In German, they call it the Kölner Dom.

The story of this cathedral is a story about patience. A very, very, very long story about patience.

A long time ago, a very long time ago, the people of Cologne wanted to build the most beautiful, most amazing cathedral in the world. They had a special reason. They had a treasure. A golden box.

And inside the box, they believed, were the bones of the Three Wise Men. The Three Kings who visited Baby Jesus in the story of Christmas.

This was a very important treasure. So, they needed a very special house for it. A house for God, and a house for the Three Kings.

They started building in the year 1248. Can you imagine that? That was more than 770 years ago! Your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was not even born yet!

The builders worked very hard. They cut the stone. They built the walls. They made the beautiful windows. But the cathedral was so big, so complicated. It was very slow work.

They worked for many, many years. Then, something happened. The people ran out of money. And maybe they got tired. So, they stopped building.

For a very long time, the Cologne Cathedral was not finished. It was a half-done building. For almost 300 years, a big wooden crane stood on top of one of the towers. It just stood there, year after year, waiting. The people of Cologne saw it every day. It was a symbol of their unfinished dream.

I think about my fever. Sometimes, I feel like this half-done cathedral. I start the day with energy. I try to do some work. But then the fever comes back, and I have to stop. I am half-done. 

I am waiting. Waiting for my body to be strong enough to finish the day. This story tells me that it is okay to wait. It is okay to be unfinished for a while. The dream is not dead. It is just sleeping.

Then, after hundreds of years, the people of Cologne decided it was time. "We must finish our cathedral!" they said. They found the old plans. They started working again. New builders, new tools, but the same old dream.

They worked and worked. And finally, in the year 1880, it was finished! From start to finish, it took 632 years to build this cathedral.

Think about that. 632 years. Generations of people. Fathers, sons, grandsons. They all worked on the same building. They knew they would not see it finished in their lifetime. But they worked anyway, for the future. For their children, and their children's children.

And then, the cathedral faced its biggest test. There was a big war. World War II. The city of Cologne was bombed very badly. Big bombs fell from the sky. Almost the entire city was destroyed. The modern buildings, the houses, the shops… they all fell down. It became a city of rubble and dust.

But the cathedral? It was hit many times by the bombs. But it did not fall. It was damaged, but its two giant towers kept standing tall in the middle of all the destruction. It was a miracle. It stood there, strong and proud, giving hope to the people.

I look at the postcard in my hand again. I see the strong, black castle. And I see the new city built around it. The cathedral is a survivor. It survived being unfinished for 300 years. It survived a terrible war. It is still there.

This story makes my own problems feel small. My fever feels like a small battle. The cathedral fought a war. My body feels weak, but the spirit of this cathedral is so strong. It teaches me about resilience. Resilience means you can get hit, you can get hurt, but you do not fall down. You keep standing.

The fever is a bomb falling on my body. It makes me weak. It destroys my energy. But my spirit, my soul, must be like the Cologne Cathedral. It must keep standing.

This postcard is a powerful medicine. It tells me that some things take a very long time to heal or to be built. It tells me that even when everything around you falls apart, you can still stand tall. It tells me that there is beauty in strength and patience.

Thank you, my dear friend, for sending this postcard from Germany. You sent me a picture of a building. But today, you gave me a story of hope. You gave me a lesson in strength.

Tonight, when I sleep, I will dream of this big, black castle. And I will borrow some of its strength to fight this fever. One day soon, my own "building" will be finished too. I will be healthy again. And just like the cathedral, I will be a survivor.

If you enjoyed this postcard story, you might also like my story about a postcard from Alaska.