My 2021 New Year’s Resolution was to read more books. As a kid, I loved to read, but adulting overshadowed reading for many years. I decided it was time to get back to it and I set my 2021 resolution to read a book a month.
For once, I was actually able to stick to a New Year’s resolution :o) and was happy I read as many books as I did, so I decided to continue the trend into 2022.
I ventured to the bookstore in search of my first book to read for January. I am drawn to books on mindfulness and being present, and the book The Art of Living, by Thich Nhat Hanh, caught my attention. I read the first paragraph of the book cover and knew I had found my book.
In troubled times, there is an urgency to understand ourselves and our world. We have so many questions, and they tug at us at night and day, consciously and unconsciously. In this important volume, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh – one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today – reveals an art of living in mindfulness that helps us answer life’s deepest questions and experience the happiness and the freedom we desire.
I’m on page 104, out of 206. I lost a week of reading while my daughter and granddaughter were visiting last week :o) so I have a little catching up to do. As I straightened up the kitchen before beginning my workday the other day, I saw a headline in the Wall Street Journal: “Services Held for Monk Who Popularized Mindfulness”.
It was an odd sensation, seeing the headline, knowing I am reading his book right now. I’ve never been mid-read when the author passed away; Thich Nhat Hanh died on January 22, 2022, at the age of 95. He wrote The Art of Living in 2017, at the age of 90.
The first 103 pages of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book resonated with me. I look forward to completing his book, and reading more of his works.
I’ll end this with a quote, which speaks for itself, from his book, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation: “Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.”