by Angela Sanford
Choose a door you think matches your personality. Think carefully about why you’ve made your selection –
Was it because it is your favourite colour - perhaps the red door?
Was it because the door is well maintained and modern, just like you?
Was it because the door is starting to age a bit, feeling slightly neglected?
Now, wait a day, a week, a month, or a year… would you select the same door? Would you select the same door when you’re with friends? Family? Colleagues? At home on a Saturday morning? At a celebration event?
In any given moment a door is an exhibition of ourselves, as viewed by others. We safeguard behind it anything we do not wish to share in that moment or with the particular people who are seeking entry.
We open the door when we are comfortable, only then revealing what lies beyond the door. Sometimes the door is open waiting others to enter and join in the atmosphere. On occasion that door is shut and locked and the secrets it holds within are only known to the door keeper. Yet other times the door is slightly ajar, and others manage to place their foot between the door and its jam, pressing us to engage. Still, other times the door is bolted shut for memories we don’t want to slip away or circumstances that are too painful to share, perhaps holding us hostage to those memories, where we are unable to even will the door open.
The importance here is not the door; it’s knowing that the door we display and/or face is but the façade to the inside emotions, thoughts, and beliefs of the person who owns the door. As the old adage says, ‘we never know what goes on behind closed doors’ and while it may be referring to physical buildings, we never truly know what is going on inside any given person unless they’ve opened their door for us, to us – but even then, the door they have allowed us to enter has limited access – none of our doors are all access entry.
We only see what others permit us to see when we enter through the door. We need to be cautious to not appraise one another’s doors, but carefully enter when permitted and understand that behind that front door are numerous rooms, each with their own entrance and for some of these doors we will not be granted access.
In a world where social media dominates the narrative of personal storytelling, these doors are more important than ever. Each moment shared openly, seemingly, is still only a door offered to those with access extending our personal lives where we can hide behind another door, whenever necessary. I don’t know what door you’ll be greeted with tomorrow. But, today the door is open and the sunlight is pouring in filtering the grains of dust in its beams, the fragrance of sea mist wafts through the air mixed with homebaking and spices, and the warmth envelopes you, welcoming you with a hug and the secrets unfold.
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