26 days — 26 learnings: Part ten of looking back & looking beyond.
My word for today is:
Jam
Jam as in Marmelade that is. Strawberry, Raspberry, Orange & Ingwer, you name it…
As I left my job last year April, I was fortunate to be given a chance to work with a personal coach to expand my horizon. A treasured experience. With the help of Patrick Mundus, I walked through long white corridors and opened door after door, to see what I’d find behind them.
On one of our first journeys, I opened a humongous white door and walked down an alley. As I walked and walked, two buildings appeared; a pyramid on the one side and on the other side, a castle, with an immense garden, surrounded by a towering iron fence.
I went on, to take a closer look at the castle. Unable to locate the entrance, I walked around it, and at the back, I spotted a tiny door, hidden behind thick, deep green leaves. I carefully pushed the latch; it sounded like the door hadn’t opened for quite some time. A handful of concrete steps led me straight into the cellar. It was full of jam. Strawberry jam, Blueberry jam, Raspberry jam,…, all sorts of jam.
Another pair of stairs led me into the kitchen. A cook with one of those white chef hats on was stirring in a pan. He didn’t say a word, but he handed me a bowl of soup. I gratefully finished my soup while the cook remained silent. After some time, I wandered into the dining room. There was a long wooden table, so long, there must have been at least 20 seats on either side and on every one of them, sat a dwarf. They were eating, and celebrating, and well, they were loud and didn’t take the slightest notice of me.
I walked into the garden, which was full of roses — beautiful red roses. They smelled fruity, kind of like apples, and made me feel, homey. As I wandered around in the garden, I noticed a tiny wooden shed. Believe it or not, it was a little toilet house, decorated inside with wallpaper from the sixties. Smelling like potpourri or was it poo pourri?
Now you might wonder what revelations such journeys bring?
Everyone sees something entirely different behind these imaginary doors.
What would you see, when week after week you would open a new door inside your mind?
I’ve opened purple doors, red doors, orange doors, blue doors,…and behind every one of these doors, memories, and fantasy seamlessly merged. Even though every journey was different, they had one thing in common; there was nothing scary, no darkness, no fear, only light and colours and an occasional bit of craziness or oddness.
It made me profoundly grateful to learn how many peaceful worlds, live inside me. I’d wish everyone to have such refuges.
My tenth learning:
Our imagination is a greater richness than we could ever imagine.
My take away for 2018: Whenever you can plant a seed of such peaceful world in anyone else’s mind, do so; the world needs more doors leading to peace.
