My Silent Healers.

 Happy new month!!!

OMG, I have been quiet, quiet but with a great cause.

I have been reading books all year and by nine months, like a whole baby, I am here to deliver. Growing up, I was a silent child. I am more of an observer and sometimes I tell my relatives of details of events growing up and they are shocked. I have always been the 'behind the scenes, chilled, laid back girlie.'

As an adult, not much has changed honestly. As I learn myself, that aspect just seems to stick and I am at peace with that. As a silent person generally, you have a lot going on in your mind at all times. I mean that is where all your conversations happen.

A little throwback. Growing up, my village did not have electricity. Those who had back then were actual tycoons. I am not even exaggerating. I spent my whole primary school life reading my books using the kerosene lamp. It was not a big deal to me because everyone in my village used them. We got electricity when I got to form one.

I did know things like screen time, because honey where was the screen? My grandfather(God rest his soul in paradise)used to buy newspapers every single day. He would keep them in a drawer and most weekends I would read them. I would solve those puzzles and slowly I was exposed to a world that did not exist in my world.

My primary school had a library but we had like thirty minutes to read a book and for some reason, we couldn't borrow them. I can't really remember if I was a rule or we just did not know but we never saw those books outside the library.

I got to high school and in form one term, I had two Nora Roberts books. The supply was unlimited. I befriended the librarian(who was a certified kleptomaniac, he used to steal girls' undies and soaps, story for another day), and I used to take two home.

In the afternoons in the village, there is not much to do and if you are not careful, you end up sleeping each afternoon.I would read my books and immediately I report to school, get others, and look back at how I grew my hobby.

Fast forward,college. College was mostly about survival and learning how to get money mostly. I would start reading in the fourth year. It seems I really read well under pressure, ha, ha.

Now, early this year. I met my friends when the year started and we had a small party where we had a year's compass and the things we wanted to do before the year ended. I told them I wanted to read more books and that I have done.

I like my phone. I am always on Instagram finding something or laughing on TikTok. However, those do nothing for me. Reading has hugely reduced my screen time. It gives me a moment of quiet where I am shut out from the chaos of every day to a world where it is all roses and butterflies.

Reading is a great way to decompress. It does wonders for the parts of your brain that are concerned with memory and thinking. You get to live one hundred lives in each book. You can get exposed to new ways of thinking, feeling, talking, and even writing.

I am on book 11/12 and I genuinely feel as if I underestimated my reading speed. However, the year is still young and we might add more books we just need to look at the financial budget again.

Take a book today. For me, books are my quiet fix. I have said this before and will forever say it. Adulting is a lot, a lot. You need to be intentional about your joy and creating your own pockets of joy and healing.

Mine happens to be books, my silent healers.