Books and more books


Hello...

I had such a mundane conversation this week that made me so abundantly happy. I was on one of my many family group calls and I was raving about this movie to my brother. The movie was based on a book and both of us were trying to find it online. It got us into a deeper conversation about books though. Us talking about books in itself was such a miracle if you know our history. Our older sister was always a bookworm. Most of our book collection was built when she was a child. Unfortunately, her passion for books inspired our mum to impose a mandatory reading time when we were younger. I don't really know how my brother felt about it, but I hated it. I really really hated it. I hated reading. I hated being forced to read. And so I would always get a book, put it over my head and go to sleep. I find it hard to envision myself doing that to be honest, but I remember doing it so... When I finally found a book I would be interested in reading, I would read it during every reading time and it was eventually banned. So I went back to my rebellious sleeping for a while. And then all of a sudden, my sister recommended 'My Worst Best Friend.' I can never forget this book that revolutionized reading for me. Looking back, I don't know if it was because the book was so amazing, but it somehow did it for me. It got me into a frenzy of reading books about teenagers (which I was not at the time) which explains why I could not wait to be 16 (and then ended up having that entire year pass by without really acknwoledging it). Basically, I became a hopeless romantic but a more hopeless reader getting lost and emotionally caught up in books. As is clear from my short Ted Talk above.... reading has affected me in more ways than one.

Anyway, my brother and I were talking about books and he was recommending some to me (not that I really have time to read them;)). Somehow, he has managed to fall in love with a lot of the classics and I was making a list of all my must-reads. Long after we hung up, I thouhgt about that conversation and just got so happy. I don't know if it was the fact that we could have such a simple conversation or the fact that I could have that conversation with my brother, but there was definitely something. I feel like right now, so many major things are happening in my life and the lives of those I care about and I've never been more interested about being supportive of them than I am now. But also, in the midst of all this business, it's great to be able to have such simple conversations. It reminded me of playing a gratitude game with my friends at school and taking it in turns to remember something simple recently that had made us really happy. It may sound dumb, but our mindset affects everything. It affects what we think about ourselves and others, what we think we are capable of and what we are willing to do. So by directing our mindset in a postive direction, we take some of the power away from our fear and insecurities.

Make sure to get some rest this weekend. And if you feeling really stressed or alone, try reaching out to someone and telling them. It's really easy to feel alone if you never give someone the chance to relate to what you're going through. You'd be surprised how many of us are just waiting for someone else to make the first move.

God bless you.

Dera

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