On the 11th of June, 2017, my boyfriend and I survived a flat fire. A few months prior I had been going through a lot of housing and health complications. That resulted in my manager at the time having a ‘one to one’ with me. She then took me to Waterstones, a book store, to buy me a “special book” that she believed would help me a lot. That special book was The Secret.

The Universe brought this magical book into my life, however, I did not read it. I kept the book in my Adidas bag that I carried with me every day with the intention of reading it. However, the “right’ time never came. Until the 11th of June, 2017.

A fire broke out in the shops below our flat around 7 am. My boyfriend and I were the only ones in the flat. We escaped and the Fire Department arrived, however, the fire was not out until later that evening.

As the days went by, residents were given an opportunity to possibly salvage any belongings that were not damaged. My boyfriend and I went back to the flats. A fireman asked us which flat we were in. Then he bravely entered the damaged flats in order to try and grab whatever he could to give us some type of peace of mind and closure.

The fireman managed to grab a few things but they were damaged. On the other hand, he grabbed my Adidas backpack out of the many bags and suitcases that were in the flat. Of course, the Universe knew the reason why. Within the Adidas bag was the book, The Secret, undamaged. The book was as fresh as it was when it had been bought at the store.

We had lost everything and yet the only thing that survived was this magical book. Thank you, Rhonda Byrne, for your discovery and sharing it with the world.

I saw this as a sign from the Universe. A sign that all I needed was the truth that was in this book, to rebuild and reclaim my life. I was 22 at the time.

As a result of this experience, I collaborated with my boyfriend and we created a poetry illustrated ‘zine’ which is a handmade magazine that I called “Consciousness”. Within the zine, I spoke about how, through losing everything, I found the importance of taking time to discover the richness of my soul and using my natural talents, skills, and abilities to reinvent myself.  As Napoleon Hill said, “Opportunity often comes disguised as misfortune”.

This then led to me being approached by a charity called ‘Fixers’ that works with 16-25 young people that use their past to fix the future. Young people that are motivated by personal experience to make a positive change for themselves and those around them. This experience led to us working together and creating a digital version of the zine which was funded by the national lottery fund.

I am grateful because this experience of coming into contact with such wisdom and knowledge has enabled me to not only work on becoming a better version of myself but to also create the life of my dreams.

We are all the creators of our own reality. It’s about trusting the forces of the Universe that are available to all of us to access.

A