Dear Friend, A Simple Fix

Dear Friend,

First of all, thank you so much for your kind response to my letter last week. It’s so good to have the support and understanding of someone who understands and gets it. The response I received definitely made me feel so much less alone. This time / age / season of life is full of changes and I never really know which part of it is just me or which part of is it a normal part of getting older. Either way, it was so great to hear from you and to get your perspective.

I’m writing today because I have some GREAT news. Well, great to me anyway! Do you remember how in my last letter I wrote about no longer being able to focus long enough to read a book? As much as I love reading, this was the hardest thing to deal with when it comes to my focus issues. I’d sit down to read and the words would seem like they were swimming or jumping around on the page. I’ve had the book Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng on my nightstand for over two months now. I’d sit down to read each night and as of last Thursday I was still only on page 23.

I’d heard great things about this book and had previously read Everything I Never Told You by the same author and loved it. My problem was I found myself reading the same page or same paragraph over and over before just getting frustrated and giving up. I knew it wasn’t the book and because I had noticed I was having issues focusing on other things I just assumed it was part of that overall issue.

After reading my letter last week, my sister called me on Thursday. She said she’d been thinking about what I was going through and without discounting what I was feeling and knowing the focus issues were real, she wanted to know if I’d ever tried reading glasses to help with my problems reading. She said she knew that it might be a long shot, but to go to the nearest store and pick up a pair of low power reading glasses to see if that helps. I mentioned that I had just had an eye doctor appointment a few weeks ago and she said to try it anyway…sometimes those appointments don’t catch everything.

I was still on the phone with her when I hopped in the car and drove to the CVS a few blocks away. I went in and picked up a pair of cheap, 1.25 power reading glasses and came home. YOU GUYS… I about fell over right then when I picked up Little Fires Everywhere and started reading. The words were no longer swimming!! My genius sister was able to help me read again with the simple purchase of new readers (I’ve since ordered a 4-pack of reading glasses from Amazon so I can have them everywhere). I finished Little Fires Everywhere in a day and a half and started on my next book Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I am so, so, so, so happy about this. Reading is such a huge part of my life, I couldn’t believe that this simple fix has brought one of my favorite things back to me!

I still am having focus issues, but being able to read again makes it not seem nearly as bad. (Don’t worry…I’m still heading to the Cognitive Behavior Therapist in June. I’m still desperate for help, but at least I can read!)

As I’m wrapping up my letter, I thought I’d give you book lovers a quick rundown of Little Fires Everywhere. As I knew I would, I really loved this book. It’s about two very different families…one family seems like the perfect, well to do, American family. The other family is a single mom and her teenage daughter, who have lived a sort of vagabond life, never really staying in a town long enough to put down roots. The two families come together in this well told stories of secrets, wronged perceptions and unlikely relationships. My favorite passage from the book is this:

Sometimes when you think everything’s gone, you find a way. Like after a prairie fire. I saw one, years ago, when we were in Nebraska. It seems like the end of the world. The earth is all scorched and black, and everything green is gone. But after the burning the soil is richer and new things can grow. People are like that too, you know. They start over. They find a way.

Once I finally started being able to read this book, I flew through it and really enjoyed it. I gave Little Fires Everywhere 4 stars on Goodreads.

I’m sorry to write so much, but I wanted to give you an update. I promise not every letter I write will be a big, long, drawn out thing, but I couldn’t wait to share my good news. And who knows…maybe you are having similar issues with reading and it could be a simple fix like new readers to bring you back to books.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you! Write back soon.

All the best,

Kristen

PS – Can you tell me how you find out about new blog posts from blogs you want to read? Do you find out about new posts on social media, through email or is there some app or tool out there you use? I miss Google Reader desperately and would like to find something similar so I can keep up with my favorite blogs. Thank you!

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