Good morning!

Today's therapy is THe Room. Some of us try to have one in real life. An actual physical room. Since we can't, or don't, or whatever else...

Build a Room in your head.

I feel so Virginia Woolf: A room of one's own!

But this is legit therapy stuff, and you're getting it free, and I had to pay $85, so bear with the puma's snark factor.

BTW, if you don't spell-check "But this" turns out "butt his". Butt his what?!

***

OK.

Your Room. Capitalize that R. It's your Room.

Why a room?

You control access.

Nothing comes in unless you allow it. Like vampires that way. No invitation, no entry. (No, my therapist is not this weird, this is how I phrase stuff.)

All rooms are, technically, a Box.

But a box has six sides and can be sealed.

We wanta  Room.

Rooms come with a door. As you stand in your Room, where's the door? Where's it go? Outside? To a hallway? Through another room? To the bathroom? (Don't ask me why, my visualized Room came with an exit *and* an en suite bathroom. Does my psyche need a potty break? WTH? Don't question, just... go with it.)  So... where's the door? Where's it open to? Is it sunny, dark, neither, on the other side of the door?

How about windows? Do youw ant your Room to have windows? You can look out. Things can come in if you want. Light, air, etc., b/c hey, you can put curtains or film on the windows. They're your windows in your Room. Maybe you only want a little window high high up, so you can get air an dlight but no one can see you. Maybe you want a skylight instead of a window. Maybe your window looks out over such space that nobody could look in, anyway, unless they can hover like a bug. Or maybe the windows are screened by flowers or trees or ivy or an ocean.

Or you have no windows. Whatever.

Does your Room have a clsoet? Mine does. It is where I shove the things that snuck into the Room and I don't want there. I can shove them out the door, too, and this is prefereable. I am a newb at this, and require a clsoet. My therapist keeps me around for the challenge, I think. But my closet in my Room? Has a big iron bar on *my* side of it, so nothing is getting outta that closet. Nope nope nope. Someday, Ihope to be strong enough in my Room that I can push things out the door but for now, I need a closet. *sigh*

What's furnishing your room? Bed, recliner, both, neither? Tatami mats? Beanbag chairs? Hammock? On what do you sit/recline in your Room? I have a huge pile of fleece blankets.

Or do you like to have a tent inside your room, like a kid, blankets over a table, or a real camping tent? Don't worry why you want a tent, if you want one. Someday, you won't. Rooms of our own are subject to our whim. Whatever feels safe and cozy. That may be different day to day. We're just working on a general template.  We can tweak it as we go.

Is your room dark, for sleep? Is it twilight, for peace and meditation? Is it bright sunlit, to warm you? Do you see stars and a moon?

What's the texture fo your Room? Carpet, wood, paint, wallpaper, when you touch your room, what's it feel like to your touch? Mine feels like silk and thick fleece and the fur of a cat on its tummy. (Or a bunny, same diff.)

How's your Room smell? Mine smells like cooking herbs and fresh air in spring, all light green and happy. Do you haev flowers, musk, animals? No smell? Ocean? Food? What makes your Room safe and relaxing for you?  Loved ones' pictures? No pictures? Stuffed animals? Plants in pots that are always happy plants?....

Tired out from all that Room building? Got a floor? Walls? Ceiling? Door(s)? Windows or skylights? Got your furniture rthat you're all cozy in, not one pressure point to bug you? Smells lovely to you? Just the right temp for you?

Good.... now.... just breathe. Any breathing that calms you, whatever technique, but just... breathe.... let your eyes close.... (Well, after you read this, let them close).... in your Room. Memorize your Room. Put its key in your pocket. I put mine with my medic alert necklace tag. I can tap it and get my "key".... Always with me, always safe.... There's your Room....

Ready for your use when you needt o close your eyes and sleep, and keep things *out*.... Or just want to sit and relax and you can't get to a real life room, so your Room is set up, and you can just find it again.... you have the key... open the door... ther eit is.... to your specifications.... maybe today you need stars through a skylight. Maybe tomorrow you'll want fleece instead of suede. It's okay. The Room is magical. It is your Room. The only thing about it that is permanent? Is that it is your Room, your safety, your haven, where you go to let your mind be free, and at rest....

****

That'll be $85, please... Joking! Just joking!

OK, after such extensive therapy, I'm going back to bed.

***

Random trivia: A binnacle is the built-in housing for a compass on a water-going vessel. Binnacle. Neat word, isn't it? How we got in English to binnacle from Habituculum (Latin) is one of those mysteries we'll never solve, but we turned the t into an n, whereas Romance languaes like Spanish did not, so... English, once again proving it's all weird.

Speak of ships, barnacles are related to crabs and lobster, and prefer tidal pools to ship hulls, but they'll take hulls, piers, anything they can get. Erosive little critters.

The goose barnacle is a delicacy in some countries.

The barnacle goose, by contrast, was a medieval fable that allowed people to eat bird during Lent, when all meat was forbidden, and b/c it was really not a goose, it wasn't really meat, so... if you were fed barnacle goose, you were being fed a big old violation of Lenten prohibitions in the old Catholic church. Everyone knew there was no such creature (except maybe small small kids) but people would "go along" to get a decent meat meal in an otherwise very lean and very hungry season. Or, they'd eat barnacles. Seafood isn't meat, nor is fish, by the old Catholic rules. (Or current ones, actually, unless the pope changed things. I don't keep track. World's worst Catholic, or, as we call it "recovering Catholic".)

Three really is an animal known as a barnacle goose, for the similarity of its neck to the meat of the barnacle (don't ask, just think... weirdly curvy muscular structure), and it is rare not b/c it's a fable but b/c it sticks to the Arctic, where it breeds. THus, people saw the adults only, and those were nearly indistinguishable from brant goose, tho' the two are not even that closely related.

Odd dietary note, while I'm thinking of breakfast: The barnacle goose, as depicted in fable (origin: Welsh, btw, which makes me think they were just getting one over on their disliked English neighbors 8-900 years ago).... Anyway, it allegedly grew on trees and emerged from a shell, making it shellfish, and therefore against Judaic kosher dietary rules.

Yes, food makes people insane. Literally. Ergot, a fungus that grows on grain, can cause LSD-PCP-like hallucinations, and hysteria, as well as miscarriages.

***

And on taht long-winded note, ye heavens, I'm literally gonna go eat and go back to bed now that Hubby is up and about and I can sleep without fear of his imitating a crucifixion pose and smashing my poor chest region with an outflung arm. OW!