My Inner Citadel

This is a journal entry from December 30th, 2022.

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My mind palace, my inner citadel, my fortress of solitude...

It is one room, well-lit, with a heavy mahogany desk lining the far wall, floor-to-ceiling windows behind a forest-green leather chair, and a single door that leads outside. Bookshelves dominate the space, filled with all the works I have ever read, along with those I have yet to read, and various items that bear significance to me, collected over a lifetime. Adorning the unoccupied walls, which are of walnut wood and shimmering with sunlight, are portraits of members of my Cabinet of Invisible Counselors, which includes the likes of Jesus Christ, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Muhammad Ali, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Hopkins, my father, among others I look to with inspiration and utter and profound respect.

Beyond the door, a grassy path leads to a peaceful and isolated beach. I can feel the light on my face and the sand beneath my feet as I contemplate, meditate, and pray. The sun is always rising, never setting, over the ocean in the distance. As every day I step onto this beach to think, I thank the Lord for granting me another day to do so, a fresh reminder that I am exposed in the Light of God, all of my sins and shortcomings, and yet the Blood of Christ atones for me to live another day in the presence of the Almighty.

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-JDH