darkemeralds. (Reply)

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Oh boy do I identify with the "is it reasonable to 'give myself a break'" scenario. All my friends label me as an "over-achiever" but I know that, given the chance, I will lie on the floor and read (boring) romance novels for months at a time (been there, done that, though it was a very long time ago). I rescued myself from this pit of depression by going off and doing "something else", which involved moving to San Francisco, going back to school and getting divorced. Three or four years later I began two years of talk therapy with an extremely useful psycho therapist that gave me a bunch of tools for dealing with depression. I quit therapy when I realized I had nothing more to learn from that therapist.

The next therapist I saw (some 7 years ago) suggested that I should really "give myself a break".... Which was both good advice, and just goes to show that we should all strive for balance in our lives.

Reading these days: sporadic.
I read for at least three reasons:
For escapist entertainment.
To educate myself about the next thing I want to accomplish.
History. History is always amazing.

For big chunks of the last 6 or 7 years I've been too exhausted mentally and physically to read much. That is slowly changing as I relax into this house and the fact that we have FIXED most of it. There are no huge looming projects. That frees some of my attention to return to fun fiction. Fun fiction seems to have become pretty sparse on the ground. I'm old enough that many new writers seem pretty young. Yes they are exploring ideas that are, or could be, interesting, but the perspective is of a 25 year old, not a 55 year old. Some people choose to be Peter Pan, and sometimes I do a fair imitation, but more and more I want thoughtful fiction that addresses issues more in line with my age demographic. This means I really enjoy the writers who manage to push a few buttons, or speak to issues I haven't yet completely thought through; or better yet, write so beautifully that I can't put this adventure story down.

Still that feeling of being withdrawn from the outer world to deal with the inner world is familiar to me. In my case, when I began figuring out what was bugging me, I also freed my attention to read.

Oh, and "transitions" in life? I really just think that is just called "life". Certainly my life has been little but a long string of "transitions" into a different state!