The world we live in is created by us. We choose how we live in the space we occupy. We choose how we feel in the body we inhabit. We choose our thoughts, our opinions and our beliefs.
I have just read a wonderful book called Room by Emma Donoughue.
The book begins in a room which is the only space for 26 year old “Ma” and her son Jack. “Ma”, the only name we know her by, was kidnapped aged 19 and held for 7 years in a re-enforced shed in the backyard of the kidnapper. Every night he visited her for sex and within a year she gave birth to a daughter who died at birth. The following year she gave birth to Jack and the story begins on his 5th birthday. From the very beginning I was captivated by the wonderful voice of the narrator, Jack. His life within that small square room was full, his expectations never rose higher than what could be delivered. He had a TV and watched some children’s programmes and he had some books but he believed that his room was the world and the rest was make believe.
We all live in a little room like Jack and his “Ma”, it doesn’t matter how large our little room is. We inhabit a space be that in a large house or a small flat, be that dwelling in a village or countryside or city, be that address be in a large land mast or on a small island, we are all confined in space. But the challenging part is how we use this space? I don’t mean how we arrange our furniture but how we arrange our thoughts to make the most of the space we live in.
Jack was happy in his tiny square room with his “Ma”, she created for him a world of love and fun and joy. What she did not do was fill it with misery and depression. Yet she knew what was outside those four walls …. freedom. Never once did the boy suspect that there was a world outside until she needed to for their safety.
So what about us? As parents do we fill our children’s lives with love and fun and joy or do we fill it with doom and gloom? Which world to we create for ourselves and our families? The overriding emotion in the book Room is love. That is what held my attention to the characters, that love between mother and son, a son whose father was the kidnapper. The characters in the novel that attracted me most were those who loved the boy for who he was, just a little 5 year old boy innocent of his father’s sin.
If you want to change the circumstances of your life you must find love in your heart. This is the most positive force from which all good things come. Love is a choice you make. Sometimes it is not easy to see through eyes of love, sometimes it is not easy to hear with ears of love but by changing how you perceive things you can choose only love. Start and end the day with love.
First thing every morning when you awaken think of all the people and things you are grateful for: your family, your health, your house, your heat, your shower, your pet, your duvet, your pillow, your car, your friends, etc. etc. Fill your heart with thoughts of love, remember those times when you were happy and allow that feeling to penetrate your body once again. As you eat breakfast thank the food you eat. When you are at work and a colleague annoys you silently think of something nice about that person.
Don’t dwell on the negative, negativity breeds negativity. Love breeds love. What you send out comes right back to you. So is it not better to send love and enjoy that feeling being returned to you?
