Not Alone!

I just saw this picture on Facebook and it immediately spoke to me.  I knew I had to blog about it.  

Ever feel like life is just complicated sometimes and you need some type of small retreat?  Of course you do! We all have from time to time.  Sometimes, you just need a break.  You just need to get lost in a different world for a few minutes to be able to refocus on reality and deal with the pressures and stress of troubles or just every day life.  Sounds totally like doom and gloom, but that's not what's intended by this post.  Life is wonderful and a lot of good happens around us each and every day.  Along with the good, we all know there is stress that comes our way.  Ever wish you could go back  to your childhood and live those carefree days again? You can! Pick up a book and get lost in it!

Some of my very best friends are ones I have never met in person.  For example: Jane Austen, E. Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kate Seredy, L.M. Montgomery, etc.  I've never met these authors, but oh how I love them!  Their characters are also some of my favorite people!  I cry every time Daddy comes home in E. Nesbit's, The Railway Children.  I get a sense of excitement every time I read, The Chestry Oak, and Prince Michael is running through the Hungarian forest to get away from the nazi soldiers who are chasing him.  I fall in love all over again each time I read L.M. Montgomery's, Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat. And who doesn't love Mr. Darcy's speech professing how ardently he loves Elizabeth in Jane Austen's, Pride and Prejudice?  I rejoice, weep, agonize, love, escape danger, and laugh with these "people" each time I read their stories.  I have formed a friendship with people, I am sad to say, I will never meet face to face!

If you are reading this and thinking, "this girl is nuts! She needs to get a real life!" then I dare say you have never found yourself so lost in a good book that for a few brief moments you are part of  a different world. Sometimes, when life gets crazy all around me, I go spend some time with my "friends" and enjoy their world for awhile.  When I leave their world and enter mine again, I feel refreshed and less stressed!  We all have real life friends who do that for us.  "Story friends" can do the same!   If that seems crazy to you, go try it, I know you'll enjoy my friends too! 

Happy Reading!