As she sat there in the cold dark room chained to the floor, she reflected on all of the things that have imprisoned her. Upset with her situation, she began to pull on the chains but as she pulled they felt tighter and tighter. The very things that caused her to be here in the first place are the things that she reached for to get her out. Every time she reached the chains got heavier and heavier.

She began to cry but she felt there was no one there to hear her. She was all alone in the prison of her own making. Lining the walls were all of the poor choices that she had made, all of the things that she bought that she thought would help her soul feel better, and a mirror so that she can see herself and be reminded of how far she has fallen.

She took a moment to close her eyes and slowly breathe. At that moment she remembered something that she learned many years ago but had forgotten: “Things have no power over you, the power they have is the power you give them. You don’t have to take the power back because you never lost it.”

She took a few short slow breaths and slowly opened her eyes to see the light that was now shining through a crack in the piles of her stuff. The chains felt as light as air. She looked at her arms and feet to discover that these chains were never actually attached to her but draped over her. They weren’t tangled and she was able to easily remove them. She knows now that they do not control her or define her. She looks in the mirror and the light was shining on her just right where she could now see the beauty that is her life.

There are things we deal with in this life that are all around us but those things will never have control over your soul.