Books

No shame in my game…

~ sharingmoxie ~ 5 Comments

FullSizeRender (48)

I love books. Confession: I love books more than people. Note, not more than most people, more than people, period. Unless we share DNA this is unabashedly true. I have skipped out of formal dinners to read in bathrooms. I’ve ducked out of weddings to finish a good book. Indeed, I have read books half naked while having various medical procedures completed. At any given moment, I would rather be reading than doing almost anything else.

There is a shared language of readers. Either you speak it or you don’t. I won’t judge the car you drive or the house you live in, but if you’re not a reader, well… we don’t speak the same language. Non-readers, you can stop reading this post now. Readers, carry on.

I can talk books for hours. Can you? Do you remember the first delicious all-nighter you spent with a book? I was 12 and it was Emily of New Moon. I had loved my Trixie Belden adventures, Sweet Valley High was fun, but Lucy Maud Montgomery knocked my 11-year old self on my ass. THIS was poetry! I’ve since read all of her books again, and, while enjoyable, it’s like an old boyfriend, great memories, but distance. You have the right books for specific times in your life, just like people.

I like big books and I cannot lie… Actually, I read classics. I read trashy novels. I read medical studies. I’ll read the back of cleaning bottles in a bathroom if there isn’t anything else to be found. A reader must read, just like a true runner must run. “Books wash away from the soul the dust of every day life.” Sorry, Pablo, I just jacked your quote there. Art is wonderful. Beautiful writing is art.

I buy books because I love to see all of my mini adventures lined up on my shelves. It’s tangible and it feels better to me to hold a book than an e-reader. Mostly though, I love to share my books. What better gift to give than something that has resonated and touched your soul? It’s no small thing to share a great book. It’s you extending yourself saying, “I loved this, I hope you do, too.”

The right book at the right time is magic. Share your favorite with another. Tell me yours.

Keep sharing moxie. Image result for book quotes

 

 

Does it bring you joy?

~ sharingmoxie ~ Leave a comment

My three year-old is a big fan of Marie Kondo. Admittedly, so am I. “Does it bring you joy?” was a common refrain in our family this summer. It’s my tween, interestingly enough, that is the greatest tidying up convert in the house. Truth. That alone should have you people rushing out to buy this book.

Confession: I am not a tidy person. I’d like to be, but not for reasons you might expect. The KonMarie method seems deceptively simple. Go through all your things, ask yourself if they bring you joy. If they do, keep them. If they don’t, chuck ’em.

I’ve always wanted to be a little more organized. Who doesn’t?? I don’t really give a fig if things are messy, because I thrive on a bit of uncultivated clutter. The reason I have become a Kondo convert is because the method asks you to hone in on everything that brings you joy.

Man alive, when do we do that? People talk about blessings and how grateful they are, lovely sentiments, but when do you go through the process of categorically deciding what brings you joy? The flip-side is that you begin to be able to articulate what you don’t like, even if it sounds weird.

Here’s what I’ve found… I can’t stand t-shirts with seams, wooden utensils make my teeth itch, and silverware should be heavy and pleasing to touch. I could go on and on. It starts to leak into other parts of your life: people, where you go, how you spend your time. It’s the reason that I recently booked a family vacation instead of paying for more mudroom storage. Screw cupboards, I need some sun.

Clearly I can’t escape on vacation all the time, and not everything I do brings me joy, but we all have the option of surrounding ourselves, to the greatest extent possible, with things and people that brighten our days. I live in Minnesota, nice is our currency. I’m a woman and mother, anything less than nice is bitchy. Revolutions can start in your home though. If you can’t choose what you like and what makes your teeth itch in your own home, where can you be honest?

My library, pictured above, is still casually cluttered, which is exactly what I believe a library should look like. Full, warm, with a ton of books to explore. And that brings me joy indeed (plus delight, pleasure, jubilation, happiness, gladness, glee, exhilaration, exuberance, elation, euphoria, and bliss). What brings YOU joy?

Keep sharing moxie!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.