Guilty Pleasure Reading

There are times when I cannot stand to consume another book on leadership or team building or marketing or anything that’s remotely educational.

My brain cannot stand one more byte of data or information.

Instead, I need to dream, to get lost in a story so fantastical and extraordinary that I forget which world I live in.

So I consume fantasy and science fiction novels like candy.

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But not just any sci-fi/fantasy novels. Young Adult ones.

I’ll admit, it’s a little strange that at 37 years old I still often read books where the lead characters are teenagers or children.

But you’ve done it too. Don’t pretend like you didn’t read Harry Potter.

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So what’s up with my slight obsession with this genre? (Seriously, they’re like cupcakes.)

It’s the hope, the way the characters in the story see the world — as full of possibilities and magic and love. Even when they are broken or in pain, there’s still a deep belief in them that there’s more. It’s not a hope that someone will rescue them or fix things for them. It’s a deep inner knowing that there is a magic inside of each of us – courage, strength, insight, wisdom…some spark that pushes them forward to face evil or injustice.

It’s the knowing that as tiny as we may be in a vast universe, we make ripples with our actions. We bend the fabric of spacetime and that little impact can grow. It can become a thought or an idea or a movement.

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I read to remind myself. Even if I can’t see it or feel it or know it, I too make little impacts in my life and world.

And there’s still magic in me. I may not ever channel it with a wand, but I have gifts that swirl inside of me to unleash into this world.

And most importantly, that there’s more to the world than we see immediately. There are hidden dimensions and mysteries and experiences we cannot reproduce in a lab or perfectly explain with our limited knowledge — certainly not yet and possibility not ever. But we can still stand and wonder and be grateful that we’re part of this dance.