When we engage in reading, our heartstrings sometimes get played. We may remember similar experiences, or feel a variety of compassionate emotions. Something catches our attention: Be it a sentence. A paragraph. A storyline. In fiction, the perspective of the author, the journey of the protagonist, plight of the involved, even the setting may feel like it reaches inside us. In non-fiction, the facts describing life can touch our own familiar experience or thoughts.
Reading has potential to change us, and may stimulate personal growth, problem solving, desire to create, or even a desire to heal an old wound. When our attention is engaged, we can make some life changes by allowing our imagination to meet sound thought and consider more, take something to a different perspective, or to a higher level.
Reading may stimulate us into creating a new project or to try something new. These are considered when reading non-fiction, like craft books, how-to books; there is a “how to do” practically everything for the home, sport, craft, skill, etc.
It is fun to be creative in life. Creativity is a beautiful quality of being human. Yes, being creative means to create an object or develop a skill, yet inner healing, or expanding our vision are also creative factors. To find peace, discover more within ourselves and with others, often starts with being creative, imagining new ways, or trying something new.
Recently I have been reading historical fiction, personal growth, and chick lit. Each genre has stimulated my thoughts about more than the storyline. So, I am going to take my journal with me, walk outside to the yard’s pine trees and pause. I’m going to ask “How may I increase my inner peace, and live more gently?” I will then listen, and write down what I sense, feel, and maybe hear from within.
Have you been reading, listening to a book, or stimulated by fiction or non-fiction around you (television, computer, from people)? Has anything recently stimulated you to think more about something or what you may want to create?
Here’s to discovering,
Sharon
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