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blogging, gratitude, insanitybytes22, life, opinion, reading, thanksgiving
Today I’m really thankful for the ability to read. Reading has helped to keep me sane, it’s had a big influence on my ability to “do life.” I started reading so young, I can’t remember a time I didn’t read. I vaguely recall my grandma playing music, the rhythm, the phonics, and then I was reading, just like that. She used to say I was just made to read and it only took about an hour to reveal the secret code.
Reading really is a bit like a secret code, you have to be able to hear the music within the words, the notes they are playing, and sound them out. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered this just doesn’t come naturally to everyone. We’re all different, eye/ brain coordination manifests itself in different ways. Some people can actually look at a bicycle and then go sketch it out, with some real engineering. If I try to do that, you’ll just get two circles and a line.
Actual music kind of eludes me, too. I’m darn near tone deaf, so while I can grasp some of it intellectually, it doesn’t really register. Ha! I sing all the time, however. There are words! Words just have their own music.
Many people really struggle to read for various reasons. Some of that is innate to who we are, a part of our design, and some of it is just poor teaching. I remember when my kids were small, wailing and gnashing my teeth because suddenly phonics were out, replaced with fancy, smancy, color coded curriculums that just made no sense at all. Then you put 18 noisy kids all in a room and pretend you can teach them all how to read, all at once. As if they are all the same.
All my kids became good readers, my son perhaps being the most resistant. Much like my girls would lament of math, “I’m never going to use this,” my son would lament of reading, “Why? What’s the point?” Today he’s an avid reader and the girl’s math skills have exceeded mine. Not long ago a pretty successful author posted her fourth grade assessments basically saying, “kid is reading and writing way below grade level.” She had cheerfully written her own assessment, “I’m going to grow up and write books.”
Ha! That’s public school for you. Don’t ever let schooling define you….or your children.
I come from an exceedingly dysfunctional family, lots of major issues there, lots of lessons on how not to “do life,” and yet they really got two things right, they once let me spend an afternoon with my grandma who taught me how to read, and they mostly kept me out of public school.
So what are books? I don’t know, adventure, travel, the collective human voice, wisdom, experience, music for our souls perhaps? If you still struggle to read, we have books on tape now, and people who will read them to you. I read and it enables me to see stuff, to understand things in a way I would not have been able to do alone. We need the voices of other people in our lives, their stories, their struggles, their testimonies.
If you ever wonder of your voice matters in the world, it does. It is unique and special, irreplaceable, and music to somebody’s soul.

Photo by Janko Ferlic on Pexels.com
I was an avid reader growing up. Then marriage, parenting and building a business got in the way. Now I have the time, and I usually fall asleep after a page or two. Good thing I got it out of the way when I was young.
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We’re big fans of books and reading too. So grateful for my parents encouragement and the physical and mental ability to read. Don’t know what I’d do if I lost my sight.
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Reading is one thing… understanding what you are reading.. or.. reading for comprehension, is an entirely different process. It’s the thought process for filtering… or dare I suggest, critical thinking skills.
It’s “I have an opinion based on something I read.” versus “I have an opinion based on evaluating something I read.”
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I can relate to this. My firstborn daughter and I shared this same passion for reading now. My second born is catching up. The youngest daughter, my 3yo, likes to pretend reading a book and tell a story in her in her own words. We’ve accumulated lots of books, and we’ve run out of shelves already. We really enjoy reading.
Thank you for your post.
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As the child of immigrants, I grew up in very much a blue collar household. Neither of my parents (both war refugees) completed grammar school — let alone high school. They worked long hours to make sure we had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and shoes on our feet. But education was always highly valued in my family. It was recognized as the way to advance. I read ravenously as a child. A large sum of my parents hard earned money was plunked down for an encyclopedia, and I regularly took books out of the library. That exposure widened my horizons, laying a foundation which enabled me not only to attend college, but law school. It is something for which I will be eternally grateful.
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Amen, Anna! Some of us are grateful for that too, for your work and some of the goodness you now bring into the world. 🙂
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Reading became a huge escape for me while in Vietnam. The Red Cross would contribute loads of books, and helicopters would deliver them. I might have been the only soldier on my LZ reading them, as most of my comrades used weed to escape. The selection, though, was like Henry Ford used say when asked how many colors to choose from. You can have a Ford in any color, as long as it’s black. In my case you can read anything as long as it’s _________. Okay you dirty minds, if you filled in the blank with something like romance or porn, for shame. It’s Science Fiction! I got hooked, and started a book a week habit from 1969 to 1990. Now here’s a secret about reading: When I suffered a paralyzing stroke in 2016, I recovered almost all physical functions in six weeks, but cognitively I tested far higher than before the stroke. The rehab institute said that all that reading probably created numerous new neural pathways that weren’t needed until my stroke. After it, they were needed. Why am I smarter? Theoretically, the new pathways are like new pipes, they flow faster. Sorry for how long this is, I want to put a ! on the importance of a reading habit. Kids, checking social media on your phone won’t do it.
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Amen! Praise the Lord for reading and for your recovery! We are so wonderfully and fearfully made. I’ve known some other people who had a stroke and came back sharper then ever. The body took a big hit, but the mind and spirit just came alive.
I too love sci/fi and have read a ton of it. 🙂
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Great post. Just this week I was thanking God for all of the people who taught me in my youth. Specifically, I thanked God for the non-Christians who taught me to read. Because they did their job, and served the purposes of God, I have the inestimable privilege of reading, and not just reading but reading the Word of the living God. Grace. All Grace.
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Pingback: Gratitude, Day 8—For The Written Word | A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Grateful for reading and books!
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Its very important to inculcate reading habits in children at a very young age. Parents must make sure that they enroll their children into schools that take care of these things and help children become well-rounded individuals. https://snis.edu.in/
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