After spending a full day at work, the remaining time we have left is divided up by tasks and chores. A trip to the grocery store, the bank, the gas station, or any other place that we need to go to before we drive home. It always takes longer than we expect. Not to mention the time it takes to drive to those places, and the time added on to the commute because of traffic. And once we get home, it takes time to make dinner, time to eat it, time to clean it up, and then time to relax, exercise or watch TV.
After all is said and done, is there still time left to read? It takes energy and focus to read. Reading requires having enough time to immerse ourselves into the story, for our imagination to bring the sentences on the pages to life. It can’t be rushed, can’t be skimmed over as if we’re trying to finish up a book report for a literature class. We need to take our time with a book–let the book take shape in our minds.
Busyness can consume us, and make us focus on finishing things rather than enjoying the time we have left before going to bed. Reading, on the other hand, is more about the experience, of letting our imagination take us to another place, another world. When we don’t give ourselves enough time to read, we can lose ourselves in every day tasks and chores, forgetting that there is a world out there beyond every day things.
Fallton Havenstonne 