I finished reading my 100th book of the year today. This isn’t the 100th book I’ve read since the start of this calendar year, it’s the 100th book I’ve read since the start of my year starting on my birthday, July 3. And I’ve been recording the names of all of the books that I read since I turned 50 as I would often forget the titles, even of the books I loved, because I read so many and often wanted to tell other people about them. Recording the names of the books I’ve read has also been a good motivator for me to seek out different kinds of books to read, and I can see that each year I’ve been progressively reading more. The first year I only read 46 books, then 89, then 105, and at this rate, I will have probably read more than 130 books by the time I celebrate my 55th birthday. Of course, this year I’ve had a lot more time for reading, and the two years prior to that was during the pandemic when I wasn’t doing as much, though in one of those years, I was also in grad school. Anyway, it’s been very cool to look back at all the wonderful books I have enjoyed these last few years.
It just so happened to be a very appropriate book as my hundredth one – Anna Quindlen‘s Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, about her experiences with aging and things she has learned throughout the years. She wrote it when she was 60, so slightly older than I am now, and some of the references were about more baby boomer-oriented things since since she is 15 years older than I am, but a lot of it was still very relevant. I laughed out loud several times and also got teary, I could really identify with so much of what she wrote about.
The book also helped me see the seasons of life that we all go through. I’m learning to be more in Kairos time (living, seasonal time) and less in Cronos time (clock time) Leaving lots of space, saying yes and leaving room for opportunity and connection.
Part of this is incorporating more wellness practices into my life – Regular yoga, lots of walking, taiko practice, cutting down on sugar consumption, working on less unconscious eating, daily gratitude practice, reading on a variety of topics, spending time in nature, slowly getting back into meditating.
That being said, I’m often scared I’m doing the wrong thing, by not “doing anything” right now. Why does it freak me out so much to think that I am not doing the right thing, that I’m being lazy, that I don’t have anything to show for my time spent?
I want to do something different every year for the next 20 years. Not necessarily a new job, but really diving into learning something new or exploring – maybe alternating periods of outer exploration and travel in the world with more internal exploration and learning.
I listened to a podcast the other day where the guest was talking about building her career on whimsy and serendipity. I absolutely love that idea! I have been creating small collages on and off over the last couple of months and have loved the whimsy and creativity that it entails, I find myself getting completely absorbed when I have stretches of time to do this work.
