Someone once said that, “whenever you write a book, you need someone to say yes to it.” Although not many of us aspire to write books, we are all telling a story. Living out life as a sort of book that unfolds little by little, chapter by chapter and we all need someone to say “yes” to it.
Recently, I came across a book that opened my eyes to the importance of having others in our life who say “yes”. The book is titled, The Company They Keep. It chronicles the life of a small community of authors who shared their literary world with one another. This group of authors called themselves The Inklings. Two active members of this group were J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Perhaps you have heard of them. The Company They Keep goes on to reveal how much of the work of these authors were developed in community – a group of friends that resonated with one another in order to produce books like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, to name just two.
I learned from The Company They Keep that “the term ‘resonator’ refers to anyone who acts as a friendly, interested, supportive audience. Resonators fulfill many roles: they show interest, give feedback, express praise, offer encouragement, contribute practical help, and promote the work to others. The presence of resonators is believed to be one of the most important factors that differentiate the successful writer from the unsuccessful. Without resonators, writers are very likely to succumb to the ‘dampening influence of their environment”
Our life stories are only as good as we live in active resonating communities. Anything less will very likely cause us to succumb to the “dampening influence of our environment”.
Can you name the resonators in your life? Just as importantly, can you name the people you resonate?
RECOVERING NARCISSIST 