The Shack (pt 1)

For most of my childhood, my mom was a librarian. She was the librarian at my elementary school, and even for a little bit at my middle school (I may just be fantasizing that, I'm not quite sure), and when I was in high school and we moved to another town all together, she was the elementary school librarian there too. I often read above my "reading level" (what IS that anyway?!?) and found myself living within the pages of books every day. I would spend my summer's riding my bike to the library and once even asking the librarian for "The Neverending Story" book. No, not the book OF the movie, but THE book IN the movie. If you have ever seen or read The Neverending Story, you know exactly what I am talking about (and you too probably dreamed about living in the pages of THAT book too).

But now, I am grown and have kiddos of my own who love books, but as for me, I'm not much of a reader anymore. I WANT to be, I just can't. With the kids and my work schedule there is very little "ME" time left at the end of the day to do things I enjoy. I also find it really difficult to truly commit to reading a book because I tend to forget things, and if I go a few days without reading a book I previously started, I often am lost and confused enough to put the book down and never open it again. It's sad really, because I enjoyed reading SO much.

In the past few years, I have attempted, many times, to read a good book. One someone recommended or one I thought would be really interesting, but never succeeded. And when I did magically seem to finish a book, it was never a monumental occasion. My life was no different than it was before I read the book, and the characters we just that, characters.

But if you read books, and I mean really read books and find one that is so spectacular that it shifts your mind, body, and most of all, spirit into a whole new light, then those "characters" within those pages aren't just characters, they actually become a part of you, and you, a part of them. It is quite breathtaking how simple it can be and how books have the magic and possibility to change the path you have been walking on your whole life, veering you into a different direction. Sometimes forward, sometimes back, sometimes a little (or a lot) to the right or left; but often,  if it REALLY moves you, no matter which direction you go, you were MEANT to go that way.

Or maybe, that's just me.

I read the book "The Shack" a few days ago. It's about 245 pages in length. I finished it in two days. Two days that I worked 9 hour work days. I found the time to read this book. I made the time. Because once I started, I couldn't stop. And once it was over, I wanted more. If you have read it, I hope you know what I mean. If you haven't, I suggest you read it. It is a "God book" as I called it. But please, no matter what you believe, or even if you don't believe at all, read it. And come back here and discuss it with me. But don't come back before you read it all, because I am most likely going to be discussing it, in great detail within the "pages" of this blog for EVER to come. Because it changed me, as it will you if you open your mind and heart and allow it to. Don't get me wrong. It will challenge you. But you owe it to yourself to be challenged. You will transform into a better person, whether you want to accept it or not. You aren't going to understand the true intensity of this book unless you read it. You don't believe me, I know, and that's okay.

I have already said too much. This is just the start. More to come....