I reserved a couple of books at the library this week. They are novels and I don’t often take the time to read something novel but when I do, I thoroughly enjoy them.

There is something special about a library with all the rows of books. I heard an audiobook some time back called the Midnight Library. It told the story of a woman who decided life wasn’t worth living anymore but found herself in a mysterious place between life and death. The online blurb goes like this:

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made another choice. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life.

While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Our lives could be compared to a book and we are the author. We all have chapters and every chapter tells a different part of our story. Our book begins when we are born, sometimes before, and ends when we move on from this life to our next adventure … or a new book.

We can make the chapters as long or as short as we like, as exciting or as vanilla as we choose. We don’t even need to stick to a genre or ‘niche’ our book. It can be a combination of adventure, romance, philosophy, tragedy, joy, and success and the final copy usually is.

No one else writes our book, but everyone we encounter and every experience we have contributes to how our chapters will read. Importantly, the stories we tell ourselves also influence the tone we use and the perspective we have as we create our daily pages.

We are in charge of the keyboard or pen and we are responsible for what we write. Sometimes we choose the default mode and take on the role of a bystander observing what happens from day to day. This is still a choice and our pages don’t stop being created because our effort or motivation is temporarily absent.

There is no right or wrong way to create our book, just the way we choose at any given moment. Depending on your belief, we are here to explore and find the best possible version of ourselves and we do this by having as many experiences as we can.

Words may help us understand something, but experience allows us to know it

We don’t need to justify ourselves, use labels, or be one way or another; it is not our place to judge what another person writes in their book. They have the final say in what their story ultimately looks like.

Sometimes what we call a crisis, or a pivotal moment that stops us in our tracks, is the basis for our next chapter. If we can draw strength from challenging events and still find the motivation to keep going and even write something awesome as a result of our experience, then it can make for an inspiring and engaging tale, that empowers others.

We cannot change events of the past. We cannot make things okay that are not okay. We cannot ‘unspeak’ spoken words. We cannot bring people back. What we can do is create something positive and wonderful as a result of experiencing the crisis or challenge, and knowing the people. If we choose, we can write a chapter(s) of our books honouring these experiences and people.  

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
– Dr Seuss

As we approach the time of year commonly associated with reflection, my gift to you is inspiration. I hope when you read the chapters in the section called 2022 you smile, and are grateful for the positives while embracing and taking something from the negatives.

As you look ahead into 2023, I hope you write something amazing 😊 and something powerful in these currently empty pages of your book. If it happens to be in honour of someone else, even better. The most powerful work is always that which is in service of others.

Whatever your previous chapter looked like, this is your book, and you have something to give the world that no one else can – YOU.

… She smiled and remembered him hugging her and his intense look and serious words as he held her tight, “We’ve got this mum, it’s going to be okay”.

Much Love
Dalya xx 💙