Day 28: Your Past

As my own kids are on summer break and trying to find creative ways to kill the long swaths of unstructured time they've been given in these summer months, it makes me remember with gratitude the joy of summer reading as a kid. I remember enthusiastically signing up for the library summer reading program and completing the 24 hour requirement in 3 days. I remember my secret reading nook under the stairs of the deck, where I would haul in my sleeping bag and flashlight and whatever book I was reading and hide away from the rest of the family. I remember reading on car trips as we drove across the Midwest to various destinations; reading on the beach in Oregon and trying not to get too much sand in the spine of the book; reading past bedtime to try to get to the end of a favorite book. I still have this love for reading, but rarely get this kind of time to spend hours lost in a book. I'm grateful for these memories and I'm grateful for the escape reading provides, whether for a few minutes or weeks at a time.