Most of us in this team read a lot. Our preferred choices of books range from the sublime to the ridiculous and most things in between.
However, the gaining of self esteem and confidence remains high on the list of books that we all enjoy.
At the present time I'm reading a novel written by Johanna Verweerd - "The Winter Garden". This is a story of painful memories and the realisation that life is passing by. Ika designs beautiful gardens and one day a letter arrives from her sister, "you'll have to come soon .... Mother won't last much longer." To think this story dwells on sadness is wrong. This delightful book takes the reader from the present to the past and back to the present in a beautiful flowing manner, allowing us to be with Ika as she confronts past issues and learns about herself and her own strengths.
I quote the following paragraph from the book:
"Ika would love to have been cheerful, but she didn't know how to go about it.
Cheerfulness had to begin inside. The same with laughter.
Like being afraid, which also started inside a person. ...........
So how could she become cheerful?
Bart said that being afraid evoked the threat of danger.
Would thinking more about happiness, then,
help her to experience what it was like to be cheerful?"
I guess there's something to be said for "thinking about happiness" because as many psychologists would agree, "thinking" happy or sad, will tultimately make a person BE happy or sad if they put their mind to it.
A thought for the New Year.
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