My Legacy?

Bryan recently read this book that studied the traits of people who later became great in life. One of the biggest factors was simply the time spent doing the activity that the person went on to master. There is a certain number of hours that the book claims all people will have spent practicing before becoming a master at his/her art/sport/trade, etc. I cannot remember what it is exactly, but it is in the tens of thousands.

While reading the book, Bryan did some calculations and figured out that there is one person in this household who should be a master at a particular activity based on the number of hours spent engaged in the activity. Yup, the person is me. Any guesses as to the activity? If you guessed reading, go give yourself an extra cookie from the kitchen as your prize for being right. While you are at it, send another one my way :).

I am a reader. I read almost every day, and sometimes for hours at a time. I have been known to pop out my book in inappropriate situations (like in the middle of class or church). I have an unusual penchant for reading on my bathmat at 2:00am so as not to wake my husband. I have 40 shelves of books and many, many more under my belt that were not saved.

Yet, at first, this realization depressed me a little bit. So I read alot. Big deal. It's not going to make the world a better place. It's not going to leave a lasting imprint on the world. It's not even going to earn me millions and let me retire at a young age. So, it felt like kind of a waste.

But then, Robby suddenly hit a stage where he is less interested in a book for the pictures and more for the story. He wants to read the same story over and over, and if you get it wrong, he lets you know right away. He takes a book to bed at night, and happily tucks in to re-devour the pages.

And, it has made me remember once again the pure bliss of engaging in a story and allowing my imagination to take over. There is little in this world that I would rather be doing than sitting with my children in my lap and a good book in my hands.

My children have a strong legacy of readers on both sides of the family, and I am so happy that they are also getting to experience the pleasure of reading stories to my children and helping them to discover the adventures that I once discovered as a little girl myself.