Sanctuaries (a metaphorical thinking)
Safe.
Is there any place in this world where you feel safe?
Think.
Is there any place in the world where your thoughts are accepted?
Fantasize.
Is there any place in the world where you are allowed to wonder and imagine?
You.
Is there any place in this world where you can just be you?
Everywhere you go, there will be someone or something standing with those piercing looks, that cruel smile and their minds running like mice trying to outrun their prey. If you are on social media, where every filter and dress you wear, every person you have tagged and every post you have shared is critiqued and duly seen. If you go outside, those pseudo psychologists analyse your body language, the way you walk and talk, the way you carry yourself. If you go to work or school, your arch nemeses are waiting to pounce on you the second you commit a mistake and if you don’t finish your work according to the deadline, you are dead.
Hell, if you even go to a public toilet and forget to flush (in your preoccupation perhaps) as soon as you come out, so many people will look at you like you just killed 5 people inside that cubicle.
Pretty grim picture I painted, right?
The question that arises is where does one go then? What does one do?
Because now, one feels scared. Frightened. On one hand a person is told to be himself, to be frank and self-righteous and on the other hand you are bound by societal norms and cultural restrictions.
This is where our sanctuaries come in.
The place where you are not ‘hunted’ and ‘trapped’ just because you were innocent enough.The one place that every person has, be it a person to go to or a place to visit.
Here, there are no boundaries, restrictions and criticism showering on you. You are allowed to imagine your wildest fantasies, those nightmares you always buried deep down. The insecurity you felt about no one ever loving you, that realization that you may never be able to be with the crowd. Talk about regrets, of things you still want to do. Everything you ever felt, dreamed, thought and imagined: lies in this sanctuary. You are safe.
And if you still haven’t found it, don’t worry. You have it already, you just need to recognize and embrace it.
And if all else fails?
There is within you calmness and stillness and a sanctuary, which you can retreat in at any given time.
