I just woke up, fed our cat, opened up the house so it could hopefully stay just a little cooler, as the day gets progressively hotter. And while going to the bathroom, my mind is whirling and twirling with with thoughts galore. So what is it my minding is trying to work out this morning? Well, it's not quite as simple as that to be truthful, but I will give you jut one isolated thought.
Since my "job" these days per my Michael is to get well, meaning take my meds, take all the naps I need, rest up, don't exert mysell too much, do my physical therapy exercises, etc. It has left me with an ideal amount of time to do one thing that I love, reading. So the selfish person that I am is taking full advantage of this time to read up all that I can. And there is no guilt involved, well maybe some but I have been told to not worry about it, so I try not to worry about it and read on.
I love how there are different kinds of book lovers, as there should be. The way I was created speaks to the desire for reality in things, life, people, adventures. This is not to say that I don't enjoy fiction books. I've read mostly the 'classics' as I know they are safe readings. I am not a Sci Fi, Romance, Midevil Fantasy kind of reader. Although I'm sure I have missed out on some great books, but I'd rather waste my time with others. When it comes to fiction I have such a hard time reading it because I want what I am reading to be true, an actual event or person, time or situation to have actually happened in this life time. And then as I'm reading, I begin to wonder if it has happened or if the people are real, etc and then I just freak myself out and not enjoy the rest of the book. I'm weird, I know.
The other aspect of reading non-fiction, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and period pieces is that I love how I am always learning something new about our world. There is so much history that I have learned through reading these books, that I never learned or was taught in school. This just excites me to no end! Let me insert here before I get a berauge of comments from fiction readers. I have read numerous fiction that were based on a historical event or time period and yes, I did learn a little something there. But to me reading the rest of the story as something that some one imagined, with a historical background, just doesn't work for me. But I'm glad it works for many, many people. As there are quite a lot of writers able to make a living doing this. Good for them!
But as for me, I feel as though I am continuing my education as I read one book, finish and pick up another. The lives I read about, the historical events that have taken place since the begining of time, the ability to see myself in the people I read about, and how it relates so closely to some of my experiences, my emotions. And then to be taken to places, on adventures, and into the very lives of people throughout this world, I am able to travel, to experience and to figuratively live out what others have already experienced. This just fascinates me to no end. I've figuratively experienced Iran, Tehran, India, Haiti, Russia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cuba, USA, Pakistan, Africa. And there is still so much more to learn out there. So I am definitely taking full advantage of this down time so that I can continue to learn something new everyday through reading. And I do.
I am so thankful for the freedom to read, be educated, to experience what others have in their lives, to freely enter our local library and partake of it's generosity of wall to wall books, magazines, movies, and more.
I am so very thankful to be a woman AND have the freedom to be educated period.
Through my readings, I have continued to appreciate what my life was, what my life is, what it continues to be, and what it will be in the future. I have continued to gain and appreciate my freedom in all things.
I do not and cannot take for granted my freedom to have the time to get well, to not have to work at this time, to take my mind and heart to other places and in to others' lives. I do not take for granted that I have been given the freedom to educate myself and others.
I am thrilled that I am a lover of reading.
I hope you too will become one, if you are not one already.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Faithless Heart
I was laying in bed last night thinking about how sometimes our hearts can be unfaithful. Unfaithful to another person, unfaithful to our spouse or significant other, unfaithful to our best intentions, unfaithful in the workplace, unfaithful to what we desire most in life.
These are just simple thoughts with no answers. But I was wondering how we, as affectionate and caring beings, are able to forego those intentions for something that leads to unfaithfulness? I suppose the unfaithfulness allows for a sense of non-commitment, a release from our current or future responsibilities, a quick answer to another's lack of understanding, caring, or acknowledgment to/of us. A faithless heart it seems speaks to the inner core of ourselves where we desire not the reality of our situations or of another.
I was thinking in terms of our state of world affairs. The London bombings were just as unexpected as the 9/11 without as many deaths just yet, but then because it's across the globe, there appears to be no outcry among the American people, as a whole, no letters in the newspaper, no radio stations with folks discussing the outrageousness of this monstrosity, etc.
All of it is spoken through the voices of the authoritative folks who speak in the language that distances one another to the reality of the attacks. It speaks almost in a third person form that allows for no real relation to any one person or folks in America. Except perhaps those who had friends, family that lived in London and were commuting during those hours.
How unfaithful we are as Americans to other's plights, unless it happens directly to us and then we are as outspoken and angry and ready to wage war against the other.
I am not saying every person in America doesn't care but it sure seems awfully quiet since the bombings. The American voice is quiet perhaps because the bombings took place elsewhere or quiet because we are glad it didn't happen o us again? I am pretty confident it is both.
America, the land of plenty, gluttony and power can rise above and out of our own unfaithfulness when it calls for it, from our own people. BUT what about faithfulness toward others. If the bombing had been at preschools or attacked at schools with children, then I believe the American people would be in an outcry over what happened, but because it did not occur to the children, and thank god for that, it is pretty damn quiet.
Our faithfulness is so much guided by what we give attention to. But our faithlessness is even more guided by our very intentions and selfish desires that pain not only themselves, eventually, but everything that comes between or within the circle of the that faithlessness.
How are you being unfaithful?
Shalom,
Kim
These are just simple thoughts with no answers. But I was wondering how we, as affectionate and caring beings, are able to forego those intentions for something that leads to unfaithfulness? I suppose the unfaithfulness allows for a sense of non-commitment, a release from our current or future responsibilities, a quick answer to another's lack of understanding, caring, or acknowledgment to/of us. A faithless heart it seems speaks to the inner core of ourselves where we desire not the reality of our situations or of another.
I was thinking in terms of our state of world affairs. The London bombings were just as unexpected as the 9/11 without as many deaths just yet, but then because it's across the globe, there appears to be no outcry among the American people, as a whole, no letters in the newspaper, no radio stations with folks discussing the outrageousness of this monstrosity, etc.
All of it is spoken through the voices of the authoritative folks who speak in the language that distances one another to the reality of the attacks. It speaks almost in a third person form that allows for no real relation to any one person or folks in America. Except perhaps those who had friends, family that lived in London and were commuting during those hours.
How unfaithful we are as Americans to other's plights, unless it happens directly to us and then we are as outspoken and angry and ready to wage war against the other.
I am not saying every person in America doesn't care but it sure seems awfully quiet since the bombings. The American voice is quiet perhaps because the bombings took place elsewhere or quiet because we are glad it didn't happen o us again? I am pretty confident it is both.
America, the land of plenty, gluttony and power can rise above and out of our own unfaithfulness when it calls for it, from our own people. BUT what about faithfulness toward others. If the bombing had been at preschools or attacked at schools with children, then I believe the American people would be in an outcry over what happened, but because it did not occur to the children, and thank god for that, it is pretty damn quiet.
Our faithfulness is so much guided by what we give attention to. But our faithlessness is even more guided by our very intentions and selfish desires that pain not only themselves, eventually, but everything that comes between or within the circle of the that faithlessness.
How are you being unfaithful?
Shalom,
Kim
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