Life is So Good

I am currently reading, Life is So Good.  I found out about this book from one of Oprah's last shows about some of the most amazing people she has met.  I don't think I saw the full story on this man but I remembered I really wanted to know his story.  This book is about a man named George Dawson who was 98 years old when he learned how to read. 

I have frequently mentioned how I'm a slower reader and its sometimes frustrating.  However, I could not imagine going almost a hundred years not knowing how to read in a world full of words.  He was born in 1898 and went through basically all of the 20th century not reading.  Its a foreign concept to me to see words and not know what they are.  I get stumped on words but I do know the basics of sounding things out and knowing that certain placements of vowels generally tell you what sound it should make and the such.  To not know how to read and still be able to get through life and be able to say it was good is something amazing to read.

I'm almost finished with this book and I am inspired.  I'm encouraged to read more, but I am also encouraged to take in life and see it as good.  Even when things around me are bad life is still good because God has blessed me with so many wonderful gifts. 

I have 40 pages left and then I'll be moving on to The Hunger Games.  I'm only reading that one because the movie is coming out and some students may go on a field trip to see the movie after they finish the book.  I'll be back with an update on Hunger Games in a bit.  Happy New Year folks...get to reading :).

Have a little faith

Mitch Albom may be my favorite author who has consistently put books out.  I have a few favorites in the one hit wonder arena too.  There is only one book of his I never finished because it wasn't interesting like the others.  Anyway, I finished Have A Little Faith back in November.  It was a great book.  I read that one pretty quickly, one because it was a shorter easy read like most of his books, and two the movie was airing the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

What I took from this book was, we all have a journey when it comes to what we believe.  Sometimes we have to cross paths with others on a journey to find what we truly believe.  I struggled with the book at certain points because I'm always looking for that profound answer or idea that will change my life.  I really don't know why I do that but I do.  In the book there were great messages of how we should treat and love each other. We can learn from each other too.  That's what I desire to do as I live...learn!!!  As Maya Angelou said to me, okay she said it to a few hundred people, I was in the room.  She said, when you learn don't keep it to yourself.  You learn to teach others as you go. 

So have a little faith my friends. Ps...I don't know what's up with Mitch but all of his books are about people who died.  I always cry by the end.  Its never a downer just touching.