Are You Wading or Jumping?

I don't know how to swim.  True story.  I can't even float.  True story.

But it doesn't really bother me.  Maybe, someday, I'll learn but it's not a priority in my life.

However, I do want to swim in the figurative sense.  I want to not have to wade at the edge of the hotel swimming pool of life, or the ocean of life (whichever you prefer).  I want to be able to take a running jump and dive, headfirst into the water

It's something I've been pondering recently.

There are lots of things I want to do.  Languages I want to learn, classes I want to take, books I want to write, photos I want to take, adventures I'd like to have and sometimes, instead of just going ahead and taking the leap to begin them (sending an email, signing up for a class, getting out my camera, etc) I start analyzing (yea, not a good word).  And before you know it, I've talked myself out of it.


I'm challenging myself (and you too, if you want to join me) to not analyze so much.   Instead, the next thing that I desire to do, I'm just going to run, jump and dive headfirst into it and see where it takes me.....

How about you?

Sara

Rediscovering Reading

  When I was a little girl my whole world revolved around reading (that and playing with imaginary friends and making up adventures - I was an only child).  As I grew older, things began crowding out reading.  The biggest obstacle to reading was a tv!!!  It may surprise some of you to know that my family did not have a tv until I turned 18.  Yes, friends, I lived for 18 years without a tv in my home.  My family and I did go to my uncle's house on the weekends to watch movies or shows and my mother and I would go to his home (he lived a mile up our road) if there was a special news story but other than that, we didn't watch tv.  It was a treat when I was able to see one!. 

  Anyway, for Christmas my dad bought a tv that we could only watch movies on.  I believe I made up for lost time.  We all did. We watched movie after movie.  And it was amazing.  I could hardly believe that I had  a tv that I could watch a movie on whenever I wanted!

  The downside to that was the fact that as I caught up on the 18 years of movies I'd missed, my desire to read slowly ebbed away.  Now, my fixation was movies.

  I did read off and on and have read off and on for the past few years but nothing like when I was growing up.  Not only did the tv take the place of reading, but my schedule becoming busier did as well.

  Anyway, one of my goals for this year is to read 12 books.  I have read one (The Hunger Games), finished another (The Lost Girls -I started this book in April of 2010) and am now reading A Room With a View by E. M. Forester. 

  Reading is special.  Reading is transportation to other worlds.  Where a movie shows you what something is like, a book makes you imagine the scene you're reading, allowing you to exercise your mind and creativity.

  As I grow older (That sounds horrible - I mean, I'll only be 27 on the 9th of this month....) the more I hear about people who can't read.  That saddens me.  I want to go out and teach everyone to read.  

  I don't think that those of us who can read realize how special and important that ability is. 

  I challenge you to read some books this year.  It doesn't have to be 12.  It can be 5, or 2.  But please, do decide to read.  It's a privilege.

Sara

First Read of 2012 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

  I just finished reading The Hunger Games.  It is one of the best books I've read in a very long time.  One thing that stood out to me was that there was no foul language in it at all which is a rarity.

  I read the book on the slight mention of it from a friend who said she had to read it for a class she was taking at her University. 

  While the whole premiss of the book (it really reminds me of a communist state) is distasteful to me and the Hunger Games themselves as a practice are inhumane, the character's and the humanity they show is great.

  I'm not going to give away the plot but I will say that if you begin reading it (which I recommend you to do) you won't be able to put it down.



Sara