How to make time for reading when you really don't have any

How to make time for reading when you really don't have any

Sunday, July 17, 2016

 Reading. It is a heavy topic on this blog, partly because I am such an avid writer, partly because I am such a budget queen (libraries cost nothing out of pocket), and partly because, well, it is a lovely thing to do. But lately, will all the summer fun to be had, I am finding myself easily stuck in this dreadful little place called "real life."

What a bummer.

Truthfully, it makes me sad that I am easily seduced by Instagram and sunny walks (Instagram more so than the walks, definitely) but the fact is, this: for me summer is a very difficult time for reading. Yes, that is the opposite of what we are taught to be in school (summer reading programs, anyone?) but I am so stimulated by so many different things that it is damn difficult to sit still and do any one thing. Especially, it seems, things that are not multitask-able. Reading, I am talking to you.

Exactly how does one find time for reading when there simply doesn't seem to be any time for stillness?

You make time for stillness.



A little piece of advice that is much easier said than done, one must create his or her own time for stillness in which to incorporate reading. I'll even let you in on another little secret on how to do this: it doesn't have to be a great effort. Last week, I wrote about how to ease back into reading, and admittedly this advice is similar, though not exact: read just a little bit if you are strapped for time. Set aside 15 minutes that is a slot just for you, and simply read - anything. Read a short story or a poem or even a respected essay. A magazine even counts in this instance. Exercise your eyes across a page for a small, manageable amount of time, and perhaps you will find yourself craving more.

Perhaps, over the course a few months or so, you will find that you can make more and more time, based on your desires. You may find that a half hour a day (or less!) is all you will ever have time for (and never let any academic condemn you for it - you have your own life to live as best as you see fit. readers can often be quite judgmental to those who choose to spend some time on TV or other activities. you do not need these friends.) and that, my friends, is perfectly acceptable.

After all, 30 minutes of heart-rest and mind-race is healthier and happier than none at all. Pick up a short story today, or even a novel, and read it one word at a time.

Savor your stillness.



How will you put this into practice?

Stay Beautiful,

Liz

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On reading and how to ease back into it

On reading and how to ease back into it

Sunday, July 10, 2016

It's not a big shock that reading is, in fact, my favorite form of entertainment. It's one of those little things you can do in life that simply makes the heart flutter and the mind sharp. It's the sophisticated type of treat akin to a newly opened red wine or a fresh lemon pasta on the tongue. I could never lie to you though - I do indulge in my fair share of HBO Now and Netflix, but there is something about the sound of weathered pages turning in time that arouses my ears. The photographs painted in my head when words are the brush seem like the ultimate relaxation. The idea of sitting on a blanket with iced tea under a tree and feeling the soft, summer wind while butterflies quiver in the air makes me nostalgic for summer reading programs when I was in school. In four words: I love to read. But sometimes, especially as a creative person, it is awfully hard to actually do it.



There are distractions. TV, blogging, photography, this thing called a job, meals to cook and rooms to clean. Husbands, brothers, and dogs to love. Walks to take and sunshine to enjoy. Sometimes, I find myself in quite a rut, my temples and chest aching for me to pick up a paperback but my elbows rusted - not quite wanting to make the grab.

Am I alone?

I know the answer is "no."

To remedy this rusting of my arms and brain cells, I do turn to a few things to slowly lubricate my reading joints back to good health and restore to my life the essential nutrient of literature.

Firstly, I turn to poetry and short stories. There is nothing quite like a good Hemingway, Fitzgerald, or Gaiman story to get me back into reading. Stories are not huge time commitments like a book - they can be completed in anywhere from mere minutes to an hour. Furthermore, because they are not a huge time commitment, it is easier to pencil a little reading time on a Sunday afternoon. In essence, a short story of a few poems are much less pressure when you are feeling overwhelmed by all the things you feel like you "should" do. It is oh so refreshing to catch yourself in a miniature plot and still have time to fold the laundry. Not that I actually get around to folding the laundry, but I do think the point still resonates.

Secondly, I pick up an old favorite. Again, this could be a short story, but typically I will grab something so painfully beautiful that I know I will not be able to toss it aside come dinner time. There are a variety of choices to be made, but my heart finds it easiest to turn to The Great Gatsby or The Ocean at the End of the Lane for prose to fill my soul, I find that upon completion, it will be easier to reach for other words by other authors and the reading hinges are well oiled once again.

Think of it like hearing an old favorite song fill your car radio and remembering how much you loved that band in olden days and how it tempts you to pick up the whole discography of an artist and similar artists. A single song can remove you from a music rut. Well, a single book can be a reliable re-entry gate to the park of reading.

Thirdly, I write something for myself. In fact, that is what I am doing now. It is possible that, at times, you cannot concentrate on an author's words simply because you have too many words of your own. When this happens, the best solution is to expel them onto a page or screen. Let them drip out of your fingers, then, feeling relieved of creative pressure, go make that lemon spaghetti and read your book.

The world goes round and round on this carousel of life. Be sure you get off at some point for some stillness this summer.

Do you ever get into reading ruts? How do you get back into the world of a page?

Stay Beautiful,

Liz

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In Remembrance of Virginia Woolf

In Remembrance of Virginia Woolf

Monday, March 28, 2016

75 years ago today, the world lost a great talent to suicide. This talent belonged the great artist and feminist Virginia Woolf.

Sadly enough, I was first properly introduced to Virginia Woolf through the Oscar worthy film, The Hours. To this day, I would consider it one of my top 5 favorite films, partly for opening me up to the world of powerful female authors and forcing me to seriously ponder feminism and its significance to the world I know today. Since that moment I have gone on to devour works by a multitude of other strong women, but on this 75th anniversary of Virginia's famous suicide, it feels both humbling and necessary to pay tribute to a woman who forever changed history, and who has taught the world so much about feminism, the inner world women lived in, and the struggles of being confined by a society so bent on locking women inside a cave.

Here, I have compiled a list of quotes that speak to me, as I hope they do to you, of the power and will of a strong mind.

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“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” 

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” 

“Why are women... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?” 

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.” 

“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” 

“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” 

“I don't believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun. ” 

“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.” 

“I enjoy almost everything. Yet I have some restless searcher in me. Why is there not a discovery in life? Something one can lay hands on and say “This is it”? My depression is a harassed feeling. I’m looking: but that’s not it — that’s not it. What is it? And shall I die before I find it?”

And perhaps the most important one of all to me, perfectly describing my struggle with wanting to be an artist.

“I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.” 

Please take the words and meditate on them. Feel them reverberate in your heart and know that there is a tiny artist in each of us, if only we free ourselves from the chains we have so complacently allowed to be placed there. 

For more information on feminism and Virginia Woolf in general, see the following links:

Why Virginia Woolf Should Be Your Feminist Role Model
75 Years After Virginia Woolf's Death, Women Still Want a Room of Their Own
Featured Feminists of the Month of Pulp Zine

To help with depression and suicide prevention, please donate to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. If someone you know or love is worried about suicide, please visit or call The Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Also, don't forget to check out yesterday's outfit post and an essay on freedom.

Stay Beautiful,

XOXO Liz


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Sweet Reasons to Pick Up a Book Today

Sweet Reasons to Pick Up a Book Today

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Once upon a time there were still leaves on the trees and the golden light filled up the gaps in the branches. Now, there is nothing but light, when it chooses to come out.

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What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Have Ever Read?

What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Have Ever Read?

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

I'm sure no one is surprised to see a post about beautiful words. If there is one thing this blog is really, truly about, it's about rich words. So naturally, when this thread stumbled into my life so many moons ago, I began to think about my favorite words. After all, I do so much reading, I knew there must be many blocks of text in this world that had forever changed my consciousness as soon as they graced my eyes.

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