Wonderful Wednesday #126
Reading is magic to me and some small joys from lately.
It’s been a handful of years since I got back into reading which, I still can’t believe. I spent so much of my younger years with my head in a book, captivated by characters and lands faraway and places I had never visited and people I would never meet. Books were an escape but also a gateway to learning from an early age and, also the ‘thing’ that cemented my love of English and of words and writing and connecting with others through them. Somehow, somewhere in between the end of university and the real world, i just stopped reading.
I can’t even remember the exact point or, the last book I read or didn’t or maybe-couldn’t read. I wish I could write and tell you that after four years of studying (and not English or literature of any kind at all) that I’d somehow exhausted myself with pages and words and maybe even information but, actually I think that I just struggled to give them the time in amongst everything else.
I had a full time job and life outside of it all of a sudden began to look more digital: More screens, more buttons and maybe an extension of my creativity through apps like Instagram and Pinterest. Those shared images lead to shared words on blogging platforms and even on a few online and physical magazines but somehow there still wasn’t room in my life for books. I still struggled. My attention span only stretched so far.
Looking back it seems so strange to write that down. My twenties and thirties were full and busy and often stressful and each time I tried to pick up a book I just couldn’t absorb it. My attention flitted and fizzed and nothing ever stuck. I’d ‘read’ pages, race through chapters and would quickly forget what I’d read only moments later. My mind was already on tomorrow’s work schedule or the mobile phone notifications from the other side of the room.
After Covid I lost my job, gained a new one that wasn’t quite as stressful and didn’t ask as much or, take up as much of time. Slowly I began to unravel and relax and there was time in my days again or maybe I made time too. Time that I felt less inclined to fill up with things anymore. I began to pick up books, turn them and their subjects over in my hands and my head and find new ‘things’ to learn about and be interested in. This reintroduction to books filled a hunger for knowledge and a ‘something’ that I seemed to be lacking and once I got going, once I realised—re-realised how much better it felt to read again it became a ‘new but not really new’ habit.
Reading is magic for me. All of a sudden i have to focus, I have to do one ‘thing’ at a time and be open and dedicated to one word, sentence—page— at a time. Otherwise what’s point? What’s the point of only half reading, half taking it in?! I can escape whilst being present, learn whilst being completely still and usually, in my pyjamas at the end of a long day. Reading does something for me that screens and the digital landscape of largely short form content doesn’t.
So much of the content and the apps we use and consume now don’t fill a gap. They are built to encourage us to keep on searching, finding, consuming but never with an end in sight. We become absorbed and addicted to their short bursts, quick-fixes and ability to keep us captivated in a sort of intentional way that can lead us to be the complete opposite of that.
I still love to be inspired and I still love the digital world for that but I know that too much time spent scrolling, consuming—almost gorging—on it does me no good. Not mentally or physically. It’s taken me a long time but slowly I am re-learning how much better I feel when I spend more of my time doing the ‘things’ that I have to fully focus on, be present in and feel as if they benefit me in the long term and not just the short.
It’s this eventual perspective and gentle appreciation of these things— reading, pup walks, journalling, writing, simply breathing and maybe even things like eating without distraction and talking face to face; they make me realise how important the littlest moments are. How precious they can be.
Here are some small joys from lately. Maybe could-be forgotten gems that have filled my cup in amongst a very normal week:
1 Coconut water, fresh lemon juice, grated ginger and sea salt with a little fresh mint. It’s been warm up here this week and this is all I crave each afternoon. It feels so nourishing and cooling and delicious at the end of a long warm day.
2 Early, early morning walks. Did I mention that the weather has been a little bit warm up north?! It’s meant that our usual already early morning walks have been nudged a half hour earlier to keep those paws out of the worst of the warm. It means we’ve heard more birdsong, seen less people and been out in the first light and early morning air before anyone else and actually? It’s been really quite lovely. I think I shall always be a morning person.
3 A clattering of jumbled freezer berries across my morning porridge. See number one and number two…. It’s a simple and easy way to mean I can still enjoy my favourite breakfast on the warmer days. This week I froze some organic strawberries and blueberries and those, plus a great big swizzle of tahini and a little sea salt has been my go-to breakfast topper.
4 Falling asleep before the light leaves us. Something I remember hating when I was younger and always feeling like I was missing precious time playing out in the garden! Isn’t it funny how opposite small things can feel as you get older? Now being in bed before sunset feels like the ultimate treat!
5 Re-reading old books. Because often there is no need for new and re-reading a book again can make you appreciate smaller maybe-missed details from the first and maybe the second time around reading through the same pages. Or is that just me?
What small joys and nearly forgotten moments are you most grateful for lately? I hope that you have enjoyed the sunlight enough but managed to find some cool in amongst it all. I quite often find these long-feeling days a lot and the heat to match it can make me feel drained and exhausted. I am trying to be busier in the cooler times and to rest when I can.
Thank you so much if you made it this far. You’ll also have to let me know your thoughts on books and reading too!
I'm also going through a bit of a reading resurgence lately! Have always been a voracious reader but I'm just really *enjoying* it lately? Gorgeous piece.