I've been thinking more about reading and rest.  I have several books currently "in process" (typical), strategically stationed at different places throughout my day, where they carefully fulfill a specific purpose for specific times.  As I was reading my just-before-I-turn-off-the-lights book last night, currently a book on mothering by Angela Thomas Phar, I was struck by a quote she uses by Amy Carmichael that says, "In acceptance lieth peace." Angela Pharr follows up this quote with the comment, "What a perfect description of rest."  As I pondered that for a few minutes, I realized how perfectly that describes reading.  Regardless of the book- spiritual, leisure, informative, cooking, educational,etc.- just the very act of sitting down to read demands acceptance of however things are at that moment in my own world, in order to turn my attention to the words on the page and enter the world the author has created. In this letting go is peace.

I find this peace in every literary step I take through the day  From my Bible and devotional when I wake up that refreshes and equips, to the book I mentioned earlier at bedtime.  I am even discovering in my first endeavor into audio books that listening to The Shallows, What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, provides a peaceful ride through Houston traffic to work in the morning.  Even having to sit down in order to catch up on class readings, with an out-of-control to-do list pressing on me like a merciless taskmaster, is restful because the priority of school forces other things aside and I must focus.

Finally, there's the joyful rest I've enjoyed through Wonder. Not only is this book a delight to read, but the very story of Augie is one of acceptance and rest.  Augie is faced with unimaginable challenge that may change, but will not end, yet embodies acceptance of these and so lives a life that overflows with kindness and courage and peace.

It's an amazing thing that we can learn so much from books, both from what they offer inside their pages as well as in their very existence in our lives.