The inner life (My Sacred Life, day 11)

All of my life, I have been one who lives much more between his ears than in connection with the world of people.

Books are a huge part of that. Books are better than movies or TV because the reader can construct the scene with no limitations imposed by current technology or budget. And, you can instantly modify it as dictated by either the author or your own whim.

I have been a voracious reader from the time I was 7 or 8. Today's photo shows a pile of books which will be coming along for the trip when Julia and I head 1200 miles down the road Thursday morning for two weeks on the shore of Lake Michigan.

In the times I have been there to visit the place where Julia spent many a summer growing up, I have simply loved the peace of sitting on the porch reading, listening to and glancing up at the lake which was only a hundred feet away from the front door. Almost as much fun for me were the jigsaw puzzles always out and partially finished on a table on the porch of Rogers Cottage (her parents' place just down the beach a short walk). It was almost impossible for me to walk past those puzzles without stopping to find and place at least a couple of pieces.

Puzzles are cool in that, while you focus your physical self on finding fitting pieces of the puzzle, your head can wander off and create completely new stories, or cogitate on personal trials and global solutions, or do just about anything without slowing the puzzle progress!

So, today, I am grateful for and consider the sacredness of both the written word and human imagination. One could not exist without the other.