The inevitable happened... I hit June and my ability to read dried up. Ok so I can still interpret the squiggles and shapes into words and literally read... but I have lost all ability to concentrate for longer than 10 minutes on a book. (It's been a slog to keep reading my Bible!) Why of why can I not sustain anything regular for more than six months? It's like my brain revolts and demands a change.
Audiobooks and music have filled the time I previously spent cracking spines and pouring over pages. As you may have guessed, my book a week in 2011 project is slightly scuppered at present. I got behind on posting about each title, then used up my buffer during a busy period and have now crumbled beneath the pressure of catching up.
Doh!
I have a cunning plan though. I'm going to start actually taking lunch breaks on working days and sit in the lovely sunshine and push through my block. I must! If I don't read, I don't write. (Blog posting has dried up at approximately the same time my reading did.)
I'm not making myself start again for the sake of fulfilling a goal, but rather because reading (and writing for that matter) are two of the few activities that bring me to complete halt. I cannot multi-task whilst doing either (believe me I've tried). I cannot even have other sounds around when I'm focussing so off goes my music/podcast/conversation and on switches my creative mind. When I turn my attention to words I am utterly faithful... I cannot divide my attention...
I guess it's not surprising then that I've found prayer and study harder for the last month as well. Stillness is essential to awareness for me, and it's harder to achieve when I'm out of practice. So I am resuming my reading for enjoyment, for inspiration, for rest, and for you God. One helps the other I think... stream of consciousness over.