Saturday 18 April. Today I’m choosing to be thankful for books! This week I’ve made a deliberate effort to set aside technology (including my time on here as I figure out the ins and outs of websites and blogs and so on) and spend time actually reading. You know: turning each page (albeit digitally, I confess) until I’ve read a novel from cover to cover.
I’ve loved reading since I was a little girl. A bookworm, you could say! We have bookshelves in every room, my entrance way is lined with books (what can I say, it was the best way to use the space?!) and half of our garage walls are even lined with bookshelves (it really is an extension of our house). And that’s AFTER some major, major culling, believe it or not.
I’m blessed to have been gifted so many of these from my mum, who has clearly handed a love of books and literature down to me. And I, in turn, get to hand that love of reading down to my three girls. (Who are very much following suit, I should add).
This week, a book I’d had on hold was finally issued to me as an e-book, and wow: talk about timely. ‘Get Your Life Back’ by John Eldredge is about considering the impact our busy lives, and the world we’re in, has on our souls. He shares some wise and gentle practices that we can choose to put in place to counteract that. Like being kind to ourselves.
Now, at a time in history where we’re all having ‘forced rest,’ as it were, I find myself challenged to consider what I can put in place to reinforce an attitude of rest in each day. Do I delight in beauty, truly? Am I deliberately unplugging from the virtual world and taking time to simply be? Can I listen to others with benevolent detachment, so that I can genuinely share and support them in their struggles without making them my own?
I haven’t finished this particular book yet, because I’m choosing to savour it, bit by bit. I have, however, read three novels this week (let’s just say they haven’t been early nights) and I can tell you now, my soul thanks me! By tuning into the words on a page, I find myself challenged to truly allow this time when the world has almost literally stopped, to do the same.
How about you? Is there something you’ve picked up or started doing during lockdown – either again, or for the first time – that has felt like a ‘stop’ for your soul?
Kristy x
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