The Gift of ReadingAs a young teen, I attended a Baptist School. It was an Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program that was like independent study except at  a school where they tortured me with detentions, suspensions, and swats. The one good thing I remember about being in that school besides that I am a visual learner and not at all audio was that I got to read some really great books that made being a Christian tolerable for me.
 
During my time as a young Christian teen, I read “Lassie Come Home”, “The smudged postmark”, “The Apostle from space”, but the most impacting books I read was a book titled “The Cross and the Switchblade” and of course the many books written by Corrie TenBoom about the holocaust and her experience as a prisoner in the concentration camps during WWII. Of Course, there were other books I read like “Not My Will”.
 
I am thankful that I can read. I don’t remember how I learned to read only that I was reading my mother’s Readers Digests by the time I was old enough to attend kindergarten. It is something I have always been able to do and sometimes I take it for granted. Whenever I need a reminder of what it would be like if I couldn’t read, I just take off my glasses and try to read anything.
 
Reading has been my biggest asset in my life. Today, I think many of us take reading for granted and forget how powerful it is in sharing experiences, knowledge, and even Ideas as a Witch. I started out reading books about Magick and witchcraft and Wicca and Shamanism and so much more. It seems in these modern times, a time where everything is written somewhere. Online groups and memberships, Websites, Social Media Platforms, books, ebooks, email, texting, the various social messaging apps. Not to mention, how each piece of written information seems to have the capability for a variety of language translations. “There is an app for that” is a phrase I hear so often. It is something that many of us do without even thinking about it. it is like breathing. 
We can share spells, and methods, traditions, ideas, feelings, instructions, ask questions, express our thoughts and experiences all because we can read. Heck, if you can’t read something, there are programs that can read it for you. We even have resources such as Google Translate.  Being able to keep a journal or collection of journals is a huge asset to witchcraft today.
The cool thing about being able to communicate in a written language is that it doesn’t have to be grammatically correct to convey information. It doesn’t take special writing techniques to share knowledge with others. The Gift of Reading gives us an opportunity to share adventures together as well. It is another medium in which we are able to connect with others with the help of modern technology. The written language and the ability to read and type is one of the most powerful assets available to a Witch. I can learn anything from a good teacher or video of any language as long as it has English subtitles and the content is helpful.   
 
“One of the things I really enjoyed about being a mother was being able to read to my children. They loved it when I read them stories at bedtime and it was my quality time with my sons. The 30 minutes we engaged in a story together was like we were going on adventures together.”
I know this isn’t a post about witchcraft or magick or Witch issues but I feel it is something to mention. I feel it needed to be brought up in a post because I believe that the ability to read is the biggest asset we have and it is so commonly taken for granted.
 
So, If I haven’t said it enough, I AM THANKFUL I CAN READ.
In Love and Light,
Summer Song