When change happens in life, I always look for things that are familiar amidst the chaos of newness. Revisiting classics is one of those things. The familiarity, the timelessness, the comforting nature of a good story has the power to make life feel grounded and real when everything around you seems to be cloudy and confusing. This can't be more true in my life at the moment or for that matter the last year of my life. I was thinking about everything that has gone on this year and once I broke it down, I was blown away by how much change I have experienced. In August of last year, I moved to a new city and a new apartment and started a new job (only to lose it 2 months later). Then in January, I got married moving my relationship to a new and deeper phase. Following that, I started 2 new jobs only to realize that neither one was right. Then I embarked upon a new career path and a new profession. So in short, in one year I had a new career, a new city, a series of new jobs and a new name. I did all this with having less than $20 in the bank at any given moment. Just typing this is making me exhausted and I lived this. Research says that some of the most stressful things in life include moving, starting a new job and getting married. I did not one but all of those and in such a short time span that my mind is still reeling. I'm lucky I didn't have a nervous breakdown although I was dangerously close a few times. Word to the wise: don't attempt this much change at once. It is NOT for the faint of heart.
Maybe you can see now why I have turned to books during this year. There were so many firsts for me that I needed things that would remind me that there are still things in life that are unchanged and unaltered. Books, words, poetry have been around since the beginning of time and it brings me comfort to think about generations before me reading and telling variations of the same stories year after year. James Baldwin, a great African-American writer said, "“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” I relate to this so much and it rings so true. Creativity is often born of pain and when writers are brave enough to put their pain on a page, it has the power to change lives. Reading about other peoples struggles, pain, heartache is what got me through one the most difficult years of my life. This post is a thank you to writing, to books, to the magic power or words without which I would be a much less interesting, thoughtful, passionate person.
Maybe you can see now why I have turned to books during this year. There were so many firsts for me that I needed things that would remind me that there are still things in life that are unchanged and unaltered. Books, words, poetry have been around since the beginning of time and it brings me comfort to think about generations before me reading and telling variations of the same stories year after year. James Baldwin, a great African-American writer said, "“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” I relate to this so much and it rings so true. Creativity is often born of pain and when writers are brave enough to put their pain on a page, it has the power to change lives. Reading about other peoples struggles, pain, heartache is what got me through one the most difficult years of my life. This post is a thank you to writing, to books, to the magic power or words without which I would be a much less interesting, thoughtful, passionate person.
Amazing Quote from Baldwin. So true!
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