There was a time when I
would crib over the fact that reading was not something that I could do; after
all it required sitting and reading and that needed patience. My Masters course
offered no escape from reading for we were expected to read approximately 150
to 200 pages per week and comment on them with our two page reflections.
Perhaps that was the first time I began thinking, reflecting and questioning as
I read.
Today as I look back at
my reflections of readings of Plato's The
Republic or Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth or Toni Morrison's The
Bluest Eye amongst various others, the reflections appear alien (as they have a profound touché!). I wish
to bring up the difference between reading and reading with reflecting. The
latter is what truly nurtures the soul. The questions raised the doubts that
bud and the everlasting confusions, all are tiny seeds of a soul that come out
nourished after a good wordly meal. Last year, specifically, marked for me a
new beginning in terms of reading books. We psychologists or psychotherapists
ought to read to work to the best of our potential for our patients. Thanks to
my profession, I read some elegant, classy yet raw and brutally honest books. I
read Alain De Botton's Essays in Love, which still mesmerises me, ( I'll be re-
reading it again sometime), Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, Tanya Byron’s
The Skeleton Cupboard, Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, Dalai Lama, Eckhart
Tolle, J.K.Rowling, Irving Yalom, two renowned psychotherapists Jon Carlson and
Jeffrey Kotler, Erich Fromm, Winnicott, Richard Bach, Rumi among many others. I
simply read and as I did I found how I gradually began appreciating the authors
I read.
Reading is like drinking green tea, you need
honey to start sipping it initially but as you begin, the green tea itself
seems sufficient ( for me Tulsi flavoured) and each sip a dip into eternity.
So, even if you read a page a day, don't fret, you're on the right track! Today
as I write on my cellphone I was amidst reading Ruskin Bond's "Falling in
love again". It's a poetic treat. He is my kind of writer. His metaphors are
like streams of waterfalls and his words are like music on harp. His book is my
third book of the year (the other two are partly read, yes I have begun to
devour books now) and his lines melt my heart like a chocolate. I rise and fall
in the waves painted by him on this canvas. For those on goodreads, an advice -
Reading
is not a competition. Among all the things you run for or about in
life, please spare reading! It's supposed to be a leisure (I'm not including
textbook reading here) and let it be. I purposely haven't synced my goodreads
with FB friends for I do not want to get worried by who is reading how many.
Goodreads is one favourite site for me. I love their reccomendations. This year
my cherished gifts were all books and I'm only glad! There are some 60 books
waiting to be read and the list only gets longer by the hour. Have a blessed
and a nourishing reading year ahead!
Love
Have a reading year ahead!:)
P.S: I just finished
Ruskin Bond’s Falling in Love Again and Virginia M Axline’s Dibs in Search of
Self
