A Bibliophile’s Sabbatical

Confession: I have not read a single book from start to finish in over a year.  Just to give you some background I have read or been read to since the day I was born.  A quarter of a century.   My loss of interest in reading happened rather suddenly.  At first I thought it was the books; however, as time went on I realized that it was me.  I had lost all interest and desire to read. 

This was a secret I kept in the dark for a year.  Bringing it before God and silently wrestling.  Various scenarios of what could be wrong with me ran through my head.  Recently I met a new friend.  She asked what I enjoyed doing.  I said reading.  (It is what I have always said... at one time it was true.)  This lead to the dreaded “what are you currently reading?” question.  Not being able to lie I shared my secret… and she laughed. 

I froze in shock.  She smiled and shared that perhaps I had entered into a season of going out… and connecting.  Seeing that I wasn’t quite following she followed with “What happened when you read as a child?”  Slowly I started to catch on to what she was getting at.  Reading transported me far away.  We had just talked earlier about how I desperately needed to figure out community.  Is it not amazing the perspective others can give us!

This has lead me to the decision that I am taking a sabbatical from books for an undetermined amount of time (I hope to read again someday!).  Instead I am choosing two things:

1.  To community (insert scream of terror and yes community is a verb).  
2. To write (to take some of what is in my head and practice it being OUT).

This being said, you may see me a little more often in this tiny nook of the web!