#ProjectZen #Day2 #GratitudeProject

My mother instilled a deep love of reading in me very early in life. She was an avid reader of romance novels and all kinds of magazines. I never did get into romances (although I did read quite a few “light” Harlequin romance novels as a teenager). Early on I remember Dr. Seuss books at home, and Dick and Jane readers in grade school.

I will always remember Mrs. Babcock reading the entire Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in grade school. My mother gave me my very own box set, and I still have it to this day.

Some of my favorite books as a child were Wild Goose, Brother Goose by Mel Ellis, Call of the Wild by Jack London, and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. 

When I was in fifth grade, my mother bought me a book to read on the plane when we flew to Germany to visit my Oma and Opa. It was The Twins at St. Clare’s by Enid Blyton. I read the entire book as we crossed the Atlantic and was quite fascinated and obsessed with English boarding schools for months afterward.

I adored E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little. Another boxed set given to me as a small child, that I still have and treasure.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales! Oh, how I read those stories over and over!

Anyway, this blog entry would be about 100 miles long if I keep listing every book I can remember, with photos, but you get the idea! I just had to share some of my childhood favorites.

I simply loved to read. When I read for entertainment, I was transported to other worlds, and I wore the shoes of thousands of characters. I flew fighter planes. I played with dinosaurs. I learned how to be a good friend. I became a princess. I became a jungle explorer who wasn’t afraid of snakes. Oh, the wonderful things I became. Reading enabled me to dream. Reading enabled me to develop empathy. 

From a practical stand point, reading is connected to almost everything we do, from day to day. Filling out job applications, recipes, every written test we will ever take (school, jobs, aptitude, driving….think about it…..so many tests!), contracts, financial statements, personal and business correspondence. Need I keep listing things off? I don’t think so, you get the idea! I never really thought about this until I decided to make literacy my “gratitude project” topic tonight. I started off with a mushy perspective and a love of books. After I thought about it for a while, it occurred to me that without my ability to read, just how different and terribly limited my life would be in almost every way.

Just stop and think a few minutes how different your life would be if you could not read. Wow, right?

Today, I am grateful I can read, and I am grateful my mother taught me to love reading.