Gratitude Journal #3 – Books

I mean, this was expected, wasn’t it? A huge thank you to stories. All the stories I’ve grown up reading. All the stories that saved me. All the stories that are still saving me. And where do these stories live? You got it – books!

Before I get down to thanking Books, I have to thank my dad. For introducing me to the wonderful world of books in the first place. He bought me my first book and got me my first Library card and always encouraged me to buy books, when we went on trips. It was because he was an avid reader himself, that he probably enjoyed seeing me read too. Whatever be his reasons, I am grateful to him for giving me one of my best friends for life 🙂

When I was a child, we moved around a lot. I was a Naval officer’s kid and we had these tiny Libraries with worn out books and comics in the Club. We used to go to the Club every weekend, and sometimes on Wednesdays too. Every time we would move to a new place, I’d have to go out with my parents to the Club where we would mingle with new people (well, new to me, but known to my dad). I found it really hard to gel with the other kids, I still kind of do. So I would venture into the tiny Libraries in the Clubhouse. It would be the quietest room in the entire area. There would mostly be comics, torn and worn out – Archies, Tinkle. Or the usual Enid Blytons or maybe some abridged children’s classics. And a lot of Mills and Boons, which mom had sternly advised me against reading then. Lol..

Eventually I grew up and there was a time in my life when I didn’t read a single book. Later, when I started my new job, there was a phase when I read only Mills and Boons. I now feel sad at those lost years of not reading or not reading diversely.

But all that is remedied now. And I have to thank my daughter for the second awakening in my reading life and for bringing books back to my life. As a new mother, I realised, I couldn’t step our and party like I used to earlier. I was rocking my baby or feeding her or just being around her, which meant a lot of sitting or indoor hours or walking the baby in the pram or in the baby bag. That’s when I rediscovered books on kindle and my favourite, audiobooks. As my daughter started growing up, I was already hooked and could move on to physical books again 🙂

In the last five years since books returned to my life, I have found that they have made me laugh when I was feeling sad, given me more empathy when I was being biased, made me aware of things that we don’t think about, such as a child’s thought or a grandparent’s loneliness or the struggle to get rich in a capitalistic world, or the fact that I was not alone in being a victim of molestation. Books let me travel to places from my own home and helped me battle depression and anxiety.

Books told me that I was good enough and that I didn’t need external validation. Books made me realise that I need to tell the people I care about – I love you, or you mean a lot to me, or just thanks for being in my life a lot more.

Books told me that money is important and there is no limit to money, but time is not limitless and its up to us what we do with the finite time we have on this planet.

Books have continued to save me in these last years and especially during the last two years of the Pandemic.

So, thank you books, for being a part of my life and for helping navigate life and hopefully become a better and happier person in the process 🙂

Are you a reader? If yes, what have books taught you? Or how have books saved you? I’ll love to read your experiences in the comments as well. If you’re not a reader, that’s fine too. Maybe what saved you was something else? – Gardening, Exercising, Music, Dancing, Cooking? Tell me about that too then 🙂