Why do I read?

I just can't help myself.

I read to learn and to grow, to laugh

and to be motivated.

I read to understand things I've never

been exposed to.

I read when I'm crabby, when I've just

said monumentally dumb things to the

people I love.

Mohammed Aziz, a bookseller in the Medina in Rabat - photo by Bjørn Ihler

I read for strength to help me when I

feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.

I read when I'm angry at the whole

world.

I read when everything is going right.

I read to find hope.

I read because I'm made up not just of

skin and bones, of sights, feelings,

and a deep need for chocolate, but I'm

also made up of words.

Words describe my thoughts and what's

hidden in my heart.

Words are alive--when I've found a

story that I love, I read it again and

again, like playing a favorite song

over and over.

Reading isn't passive--I enter the

story with the characters, breathe

their air, feel their frustrations,

scream at them to stop when they're

about to do something stupid, cry with

them, laugh with them.

Reading for me, is spending time with a

friend.

A book is a friend.

You can never have too many.

~ Gary Paulsen, Shelf Life: Stories by the Book

November 11, 2023

Eleven-eleven. 11:11. November 11. The date means many things to many folks. Good Feng Shui. An auspicious portal. Veterans Day in the US. A good friend's birthday.

This year is an extra special numerology bonus - 11/11/2023. 1+1+1+1+2+0+2+3=11.

This rare and powerful energy portal is shifts reality - creating space for new opportunities. We are entering one of the most influential periods of manifestation in life. Whatever spoken and visualized over the next few days will set the tone for the next year. 

75 years ago the Women's Armed Services Integration Act was signed into law.

On Veterans Day we honor all of those who have served the country in war or peace - dead or alive - to thank all veterans for their service and sacrifice. East West Women give special mention to our warrior women of the world. 

It began to seem that one would have to hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in the light of this idea, it goes without saying that injustice is a commonplace.

This did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength.

This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair. ~ James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son