The Secret

I have been planning to write a post about the book The Secret which I fairly recently started reading.  Normally I would steer clear of anything so new age-y, but what can I say?  The desperation that has come with infertility has led me to explore and do things I normally wouldn't do.

I'm not sure if anyone else has read the book orheard about it.  (I'd be mildly surprised if you haven't, since the author was on the Oprah show and everything, but I know this is not everyone's cup of tea.)  To briefly summarize, it is about the law of attraction.  The basic premise is that negative thinking brings negative things, and that the power of positive thinking can bring good things into your life.    

One suggested exercise in the book was to come up with a focused sentence about what you want in the following format: "I am so happy and grateful now that _______________."  You would fill in the blank with whatever it was you are hoping to bring into your life.

I tried this a few times.  The first fill-in-the-blank I used was ". . . I am a mother."  I quickly realized, though, that this thought standing alone was incomplete in that motherhood can be achieved through different means. and that the word "mother" is actually a little vague.  We are not looking to build our family through adoption, but rather to have our own child by birth.  I do "mother" (verb) in various ways in my life already, but do not mother my own child.

So I revised my sentence so that my fill-in-the-blank was ". . . I am a mother raising the healthy child MM and I conceived together and brought into the world."  But that sentence seemed awfully cumbersome and complicated.  I get that The Universe needs some instruction, but isn't that going a little overboard?

I had planned to read more of the book. . . . but our dog Hunter ate it yesterday while I was at work.  Literally.  MM came home to find the book ripped to shreds with one of the covers missing.  Hunter doesn't often destroy things but has been known to do so when he is scared.  (If you are interested in seeing the aftermath of another episode of destruction resulting from Hunter's fear, there are photos here.)  The pest control guy visited yesterday mid-day and was spraying in our backyard, so we figure that Hunter probably was anxious with a stranger in his yard and took his anxiety out on The Secret.

Or maybe Hunter just doesn't believe in the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking.  One or the other.