The Universe Is Too Nice to Name Names

Today's Note from the Universe


Verily, if "they" are in your life, you have something to gain.

Besides their absence, QoS.

- The Universe


*insert innocent look here*
You talkin' to me?



[Daily "Note from the Universe" via www.tut.com]

The Restorative Powers of Reading for Pleasure

Sometimes I think that the worst thing about higher education was the way it turned reading into a chore, a work-related task.

And the worst thing about the computer is that it has done horrible things to my attention-span.

And having a young child is not conducive to spending even an hour curled up with a really engrossing novel and being able to lose myself in another world, another life.

Last night was Thursday (right? I lose track these days). I at first was kind of disappointed that I was going to be too exhausted to have an Adventure Thursday, but after spending a couple of uninterrupted hours stretched out on my comfy couch with Kushiel's Scion, I feel like I did get my "special" Thursday.

I got to spend time with Phedre and Joscelin, two characters I truly love and who live in a world I very much like to visit. And I got to get to know Imriel, an engaging young man who is facing some challenges to which I can relate (and which may be discussed later, under an appropriate filter).

It's probably the best self-care I've given myself in a long time. I'm still a bit behind on sleep, but I feel more relaxed, and somewhat restored.

It hurts now to think about how much I have lost when I stopped making the time, giving myself permission, to lose myself in a book, and how much I have allowed other, less-healthy distractions take the place of reading for pleasure.

And I wonder how much of my inability to write stories stems from my lack of reading. It occurred to me last night that however much healing I had done, I had probably needed someone else's passion to re-ignite my own. In the same way, if my well of creativity is dry, giving it an infusion of someone else's wonderful creative work may be what I need to get my own stories flowing again, or to prime my own pump.

I am happiest and most productive when I am passionately in love (even if it's a contentedly unrequited crush on a friend) and engaged in regular collaborative creative play (theater, gaming, even working on marketing with a colleague). And reading voraciously.