A few weeks ago I saw a call for help on Facebook. One of our Senior’s Centres has a free library and their shelves were bare. Could anyone donate some books?
Yes! I love books and many years ago my husband cleverly built a series of book shelves at the bottom of the stairs to our basement so I could have a little library. Over the years we lovingly collected tons of books - the classics, books about Canada, books about history, our favourite novelists, autobiographies… However, over the years the shelves got overfilled, then dusty and forgotten. Meanwhile I continued to buy books and stack them everywhere around the house. It was getting out of hand! So when I saw the request for books for the Senior’s Centre I decided it was the perfect opportunity to downsize my collection.
What a job! I spent hours pulling books from the shelves, dusting them, and deciding if I would keep or donate them. So many of them reminded me of my late husband - they were either his, or had been a gift from one of us to the other. It was exhausting work, both physically and emotionally.
Doing this made me aware, again, of how grief sits in the corner waiting for its moment. While I felt glad to be doing this task, the range of emotions stirred up by the memories left me feeling depressed and unsteady.
Then I came across a book I’ve read many times and used to carry with me everywhere I went: “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale. I first discovered it while grappling with PTSD, and reading it then brought me so much comfort. Whenever I felt unsteady I would open it, read, and feel able to breathe again. How amazing to find this book again just at the moment I needed it!
As you grapple with challenges - be they grief like me, uncertainty related to changing world dynamics, pressures in caring for others in your work and home life, or other issues - remember that your thoughts matter. Even more, what you feed your brain matters.
We need to be purposeful about balancing all the difficult news we hear each day with messages that remind us of how capable and brilliant we are. While “The Power of Positive Thinking” is a book, it’s also a belief and a choice - one that you can reinforce with whatever book, podcast, video, or relationship fuels positive thoughts for you!
Got any recommendations? Share them in the comments!
(P.S. According to Wikipedia “The Power of Positive Thinking”, published in October 1952, was on the New York Times' bestsellers list for 186 weeks, 48 of which were spent in the No. 1 non-fiction spot. It has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and was eventually translated into over 40 languages.)
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