Imagining a life with and without ...
R for reading, writing and arithmetic
I can’t imagine my life without being able to read. As a child, reading provided an escape, took me to other places, showed me the lives of other people and other possibilities and probably kept me out of trouble.
I can’t really remember my mother reading to us. But there were always books. And I can remember
the scrap books she filled with stories cut from magazines
often going to the library
having access to an out-of-commission Kennis encyclopaedia set (thanks to our librarian aunt), a brand new Kinders van die Wêreld set (giving a glimpse of the lives of children from around the world) and the English Funk and Wagnalls, which also showcased the stick figure artwork of my early years on the inside covers.
If I was born in China, I might not have become a reader: The Chinese writing system consists of characters that represent concepts or whole words rather than letters of the alphabet. To read a Chinese newspaper, you need to know at least 8 000 different characters!
Fun facts about reading
Fastest reader: The Guinness World Record Book recorded Howard Berg as the fastest reader in the world in 1990. His record still stands. He was able to read 25 000 words per minute.
Normally there are about 250 to 300 words on a page of a novel. That means he would have read around 100 pages per minute? Hm, not sure whether someone checked whether he understood what he read afterwards!
Reading as exercise: Apparently reading can help you burn up to 150 calories in 1 hour and 45 minutes – that’s two Oreo cookies. Hm, I’ll have to read considerably more.
Reading as stress reliever: Reading for just six minutes can reduce stress levels by 68%. But I’m pretty sure it depends on what you’re reading. I can recommend reading the subtitles of Korean comedies! 😇
The reason for being?
Something I could imagine my life without is unsolicited phone calls. Today I had five of them. If it is true that it takes 23 minutes to recover from interruptions, those five calls cost me, the receiver, almost two hours!
R for Rooney
Here are three selected life lesson quotes from Andy Rooney, an American radio and television writer. He said he learned that
life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
R is for Raised Rose
[This pattern is from Sarah Hazel’s 150 All-time favourite crochet blocks]
This pattern is called raised rose – it rose up 😝
Raring to go … rest!
Sleep and rest are not the same thing. Saundra Dalton-Smith talks here about 7 types of rest: physical, mental, emotional, sensory, creative, social and spiritual.
Bec Heinrich talks about how to slow down to speed up. The world calls us to do more and more, while we need to restore and renew the depleted reserves of our whole selves.
May you rest on your laurels for the rest of the week!
D