Little Ripple in a Big Pond

This year has forced a change of pace upon a lot of folks, myself included. At the beginning of the pandemic, when the majority of the country were forced into a furlough or working from home, I had big plans of getting myself in shape and planning my debut book launch. I am still committed to having a healthier lifestyle and I’ve had to more or less scrap my plans of a book launch. I will have some sort of virtual launch, but it certainly is not what I had originally planned. Throughout this entire pandemic, the one thing that has been constant for me, is reading books.

My sister asked me the other day how many books have I read this year and I counted … and the number was twenty-two. It is hard to believe that I have read that many books in a nine month span, but reading has been the absolute constant for me. Recently, someone asked me what was my favorite book to read as a child and as I was stumped. I thought for a long time and could not believe that I wasn’t able to come up with a single book that I enjoyed as a child. Finally it dawned on me, that although I have always loved to read, the reason that I didn’t have a favorite childhood book was because, we didn’t have any books in my home when I was growing up.

Books were a luxury item that a lot of poor minority families, like mine, were not able to afford. I do remember having a public library card and going to the library all of the time once I was in high school. I was grown and married before I purchased my first book to read for pleasure.

When my children were born, I made sure to read to them while they were still in my womb and made sure that we they had a huge selection of books to read while they were growing up. To this day, I love to read and so do both of my daughters. Before this year, I have never read twenty-two books in one year and I am certain that I’ve never read close to that many books before. I am grateful that books are not considered a luxury in my home.

I am planning on donating a few of my books to a library in an underserved area, because books and reading should never be considered to be a luxury. If you want to donate one of my books or some other book to a library or organization that serves the underserved in your area, please let me know. I want to know what book you donate and where you donate. Let’s be the difference for some amazing young person, by simply donating a book. Let’s be the little ripple in a big pond . 💕😊📚