As a way to stop scrolling mindlessly, I’ve really tried hard to incorporate books into my daily life. I’ve been doing pretty well since the beginning of the new year – I usually have one going physically and one going auditorily. My general goal is to always have something to read and to spend about 10-15 minutes a day reading. And I try to grab the book instead of my phone. But I get sad that I can’t read all the books. At this rate, I theoretically should be satisfied with about 24 books a year – one a month in each format which is less than a 1,000 books if I continue at this rate and am lucky enough to live into my 90s with enough eyesight and cognition to read books. So, sometimes I get antsy when I’m reading what I consider to be an “average” book and want to rush through it and get to the next one. (I always put down a book I don’t like or dislike, but there are many books that are…fine.). But then I remind myself that most of life is average and fine and it’s ok. It’s better than watching makeup videos on youtube. Right?
I also can get jealous about people who read many, many books. The same way I get jealous about anything that anyone is doing a lot of. People who run a lot, cook a lot, decorate a lot, do 10,000 things with their kids, work a lot, practice a lot of music and are very very good or knowledgable. I want to do it all. Everything all the time. But I will have to settle for just a taste of all the things. Some people go deep. I skim on the surface but try to go everywhere.
I’m grateful that I’m still able to explore widely and try different things and meet different people. It’s been a wonderful week of wonderful complicated things. “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
While I was away on the cruise, I didn’t buy any wi-fi package (I was going to – there were a few church meetings that were going on that I could have attended, but then I shrugged and said – I’m here with people I don’t see very often. I’m off my phone, it’ll be good.). I was in/out of service on their little Disney island – enough so Jeremy could monitor the location of my beach chair, but not enough for me to text him. lol.
