Secret Places

One can never have too many secret places. They are like stepping stones scattered at perfect spots in a fast-paced, foaming river.

My bedroom is a secret place. The walls are lemony and bring sweet summer days to mind when I walk through the door. I escape to this room when the world feels too large and negative and scary. I place our lamp upon my bed on a wooden painted tray then gather some books, my reading glasses and my curb-find wicker bed tray--the kind you set over your knees--it even has it's own magazine slot and a place for a cup. And then I listen to music and read and forget why I ever felt the need to retreat in there in the first place. Pausing often, I listen to that still, small, peace-that-passes-understanding voice reminding me that everything is going to be all right.

My morning table is another secret place. Actually, I have two--one for the winter and one for the rest of the year. My winter table is smaller and tucked into a golden lamp-lit corner --the light is much cheerier than the winter early-morning-blackness surrounding the other table at the windows. I crave lots of light during the winter--I am that type of a light-needy person, the kind who must take walks even in cloudy light so to absorb it into her skin.

Well, I get that needy for Jesus' light in winter, too. And in spring, summer and autumn.

But my favorite secret place is my portable one which I take with me everywhere I go. No one can take that one from me. Even if I were thrown into prison for my faith, no prison guard could take this from me during the removal of my personal possessions. No, I've spent years forming and molding this secret place and it goes with me everywhere--colors my world, even, and helps me view people in a whole different slant of light. Helps me view myself differently, too. In prison, this secret place would be my escape, my sanity, my own Wonderland In A Cell, of sorts.

It's good to build things no one can take from you--you never know what the days ahead will bring. A secret place, albeit an invisible one, will help you through anything. It will even help you not worry about what's beyond that shadowy curve in the road which you cannot see past.



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