What Are You Reading?

This is the question I was asked by the son of an alumni this past weekend. The question followed a brief conversation on spirituality and our campus community (which started with some specific questions), so I knew my response was a test of orthodoxy. I tossed out a few names and we launched into another conversation on spirituality and the brilliance and challenges to the works and authors I mentioned. But the question he asked has lingered for me. What am I reading? 

Reading was my first true love. More than my parents, more than my siblings, even more than the dog, or chocolate, or Dr. Pepper, I loved to read. Through the magic of reading I escaped a lonely childhood as a child with too many feelings, thoughts, and ideas about justice and equality, and a tumultuous adolescence as one who didn’t recognize her changing body, emerging ideas, and unorthodox questions. I survived the strains of a young marriage where everyone in the church had a front row seat to my life. Reading gave me hope, stimulated my imagination, transported me to wondrous places, and provided words for the thoughts, ideas, and yearnings that I was experiencing at the time. Vicariously, I would become part of stories, sometimes embodying a character and other times creating a character who traveled alongside the book’s cast, and experienced adventures my life could not possibly recreate. Reading saved me, protected me, educated me, and provided the catalyst for my imagination and the confidence to reveal my true self. 

I still love to read. For me, reading is connected to my overall wellness… my wholeness. When I am feeling unwell, overwhelmed, anxious or just out of sorts, I have to ask myself “what are you reading?” If the answer is nothing, or what I am reading does not stimulate my creativity, transport me into different worlds, and introduce me to new vocabulary and expressions, I know something is wrong and my wellness, including my spiritual wellness, is compromised. 

Perhaps, the same goes for you. As the semester winds down and Spring explodes visually on campus, consider inserting reading for pleasure into your harried schedule. Or if time is a limited commodity, consider taking fifteen minutes in your morning routine to read something that inspires you or challenges you. You will be amazed how this one simple exercise improves your overall wellness.

What are you reading?

Katrina