My eldest gently pressed and plopped giant blueberries into our super cold scone dough the other day, as we prepped a little picnic complete with orange butter and fresh fruits. Our midmorning snack out in the yard, while Daddy worked away at his patio desk, peeking out from time to time at the makeshift scene of the children and I sharing cupfuls of pretend tea (plain milk) while exchanging stories. Working our way through countless books, the kids acting out their favorite characters and scenes.
My husband is a voracious reader. He loves learning, and is never content to sit complacent in any number of things. The other morning, he rounded up the kids and read us these words:
“A letter from author Anne Lamott on the value of reading:
“If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.
Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.
Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise.”
From: Ann Lamott in A Velocity of Being: Letters to A Young Reader
This is the way I want to live. To encourage and equip my children with a lifelong love of reading. To throw themselves wholeheartedly into books, into the wonderful journeys and adventures that await them. I feel honored to have met Anne Lamott more than a decade ago. I can still hear her laugh, and remember how rich I felt after hearing her words.
Today, I’m compiling a book list. All the books I hope to read in the coming days and weeks. There are always way more than I can get through, but I want to allow myself the freedom to dream bigger this year, to practice more courage as well as grit in how I spend my time and my resources, on the things that matter most to me. Like reading. Reading to myself and reading to my children. And writing. Journaling my joy, grief, pain, and ultimate Hope in Jesus.
Happy Sunday, friends! What are you currently reading? With what, are you filling your mind and heart this week?
Little Maui Family 