Life is busy. We’re pulled in too many directions and struggle just to keep up. If you’ve got children at home, the struggle is multiplied many times over.
Sadly, reading time is one of the most expendable, easily removable items on our to do list. When things are extra hectic, when the busy-meter is overflowing, we often surrender our reading time to make room on our schedule for something more important, or at least more immediate.
I found, quite by accident, a way to sneak a little extra reading time into my schedule during the busier seasons in my life. It started when I found myself at work one day without my customary brown bag lunch and also without a lunching companion. For some reason, no one likes to go out to eat alone. There is something demeaning about sitting all alone at a restaurant table, as if it is an admission that you have no friends.
Loathe as I was to go out to lunch by myself, hunger and circumstance conspired against me. Almost as an afterthought, I grabbed a half-finished book from the bookshelf on the way out of my office. Normally, I only take about 20 minutes to eat, but this day I spent the full lunch hour away from my desk. I sat and I read and I enjoyed endless iced tea refills long after I was done eating.
Now, I try to work in a reading lunch once a week. The stigma of eating alone is gone. My book and I are happy dining companions with no thought to appearances. When there is “no time to read”, I just make time. After all, I’ve always got time to eat.
