Hard Things that Were Once Easy

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn

Addison – As seen on the Chicago Cultural Center Dome

I used to be a voracious reader. My father works for a publishing company and at Christmas time that company would give our family tons of free books for Christmas. I learned to love Francine Rivers and Michael Phillips and all things fiction. It was my break from studying for college courses. I would stay up and read til all hours of the night, soaking them all in. Somewhere during raising kids and then going through cancer with one of those kids, I lost the desire to read. Now it’s a real struggle.

I could blame Netflix and Amazon Prime and social media, but I don’t know if it’s their fault or if the trauma caused my brain to lose it’s focus. They definitely played a part in it. But I definitely know that it was during the time of hospital stays and chaos that my brain changed. Reading no longer was restful.

It’s not that I’ve not read anything. I have read other books. I am trying to read. My heart is just so restless. I could be doing a million other things like laundry or painting closets or scrolling.

Being the wife of my husband, we have a weight allowance for all of our moves. And when we move from our red house, I am under orders to trim weight. So two years ago, I decided that I was going to read all the books that have been precious to me since junior high, high school and college. I’ve read the sum total of ONE of them. They haven’t drawn me in.

But this summer I read a bunch of books, okay maybe not a bunch, but definitely more than I’ve read in a summer since 2014. On my GoodReads Reading Challenge, I’ve read 9 of my 24 book 2019 goal, which isn’t great. Four of those nine books I’ve read this summer. They were amazing, excellent books. They rocked my world and taught me things that I had never thought about. (I may write a blog post or two about all I’ve read from two of these books specifically.)

I am so thankful that I have read these books. Despite the fact that I am not back to reading voraciously like I used to, I have enjoyed reading this summer. I may not have a bedside book pile like some of my friends, I believe I am getting back to the love I had for this amazing pastime. The bookshelf that has to be thinned out, is once again looking like a place where I want to stir my imagination. Those pages which I have read over and over again, are calling me.

He that loveth a a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.

Isaac Barrow (Chicago Cultural Center)

My prayer for this fall and winter is that when I have down time, that I would read. That I would allow those good friends to come back in to my life. That my heart would find a form of rest in those pages.