Mary and I dubbed this year the "year of recovery." She had been saying that 2009 was a year of survival, but now it is time to recover in several ways: financial, emotional, spiritual, and physical. She took steps to attempt to recover the ground she had lost financially last year and made goals in other areas of life too.
I decided it was time to do some recovery also, and I have been recovering in an area that was not part of that decision. I have stepped up my payments on the rental property attempting to get that paid off more quickly, but that was part of the plan. I have cut back on spending at places like Goodwill and Ollies, but that was part of the plan. We have not been out to eat since the beginning of 2010, but that has been intentional.
For the last several years, I have had a serious malady that I did not talk about, that I tried to ignore, that was embarrassing: I wasn't reading anything. I had not read an entire book since 2004 or 2005 and that was a Ramona book. I started many books but never got very far. I had just burned out and couldn't force my way through an entire book. That was embarrassing for an English teacher to admit--especially an English teacher with a doctorate in English. Mary knew that I wasn't reading because she never saw me with a book in hand. The only thing I was reading with news online and papers that I had to grade. I even went to listening to passages of the Bible online for my devotions. I got more out of it by listening to it than if I tried to read.
This last Christmas Mary gave me a book for Christmas and that has been the turning point for me. I read all the way through Vera's Journey, and it was the beginning of my journey to recovery. Since then I have read four more books--almost 2000 pages. I must get away from the computer and get the house cleaned so I can start the next book.
