Enchantment Begins With Your Beliefs

It’s true that we become what we believe. Nowhere have I seen this better portrayed than in the 1945 movie “The Enchanted Cottage,” starring Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire.

Young plays Oliver Bradford, a World War II pilot who is shot down in action and left physically disfigured. The once handsome Oliver returns home to find that his beautiful fiancée, Beatrice, can’t even stomach to look at him, much less love him, in his disfigurement. Originally, Young had sought out the “enchanted cottage” as a honeymoon suite for himself and Beatrice, but after his accident, he returns to the cottage contemplating suicide.

McGuire plays Laura Pennington, the housekeeper at the “enchanted cottage.” Laura is a recluse who has made herself into the town’s homely old maid. I say “made herself” because Laura isn’t really homely, but she’s been repeatedly told that she is since she was a small child. Over time, she came to believe she was homely and so she made her self homely. Laura wears clothes that make her look plain and dowdy, keeps her hair stringy and flat, wears no make-up and, through her eyes, projects her inner-belief that no man could possibly love her.

Laura loves Oliver from the first time that she sees him. She loves him when he is handsome and she loves him after he returns to the cottage as a wounded and broken man. Laura is able to see beyond Oliver’s outer-shell. She’s sees the beauty of Oliver within that broken shell. Her ability to do so eventually helps Oliver to see past his disfigurement and to understand that he is more attractive than his outsides portray. In the process of seeing himself anew, Oliver comes to see Laura anew as well. He then helps her to see her true beauty.

Love is the only enchantment that the cottage holds. As Oliver and Laura come to love themselves and each other, they physically transform into being beautiful to each other. They become what they believe. They believe they are attractive, good people worthy of love and so that’s exactly what they become.

The rest of the world may never see them in the same light, but it makes no difference. All that matters to Oliver and Laura is that they see themselves as beautiful—inside and out.

Take the time to see yourself in a new light. Believe that you are worthy, good and beautiful and you will become worthy, good and beautiful to yourself and others over time. Keep believing and you will become what you believe—and you will allow your soul to shine!

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