Finished two books this week!

The first is C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-voyage-of-the-dawn-treader-full-color-collector-s-edition-rpkg-c-s-lewis/b9489026eb1d2596?ean=9780064409469&next=t).

It had been some years since I last visited the world of Narnia. This one is one of my favorites from the series. I love the sea voyage (reminded me of Odysseus’ sea-faring adventures in the Odyssey), Eustace’ transformation and re https://aaronjz.com/two-books-and-great-music

My reading break (https://aaronjz.com/taking-a-week-long-reading-break) ended last Thursday. This was part of the week-4 tasks in The Artist's Way (https://aaronjz.com/e340451e). Basically, I didn't read any blog posts, articles, personal emails or any other social media, and didn't read any books. Here are a handful of things I learned during that down time.

- I have more “free time” available to me than I realize
- I want to distract myself with social media… Why https://aaronjz.com/some-reflections-from-the-reading-break

Rich Mullins on where his songs come from (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHaCIB5nhBM):

> My songs are not particularly inspired. The Scriptures were inspired; my songs are provoked.

I love this idea of songs, or any art, being provoked from us. When I encounter the reality of God's grandeur (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44395/gods-grandeur), what is provoked out of me? Songs, poetry... love? I hope for more of all of the above.

https://aaronjz.com/460e6176

A couple of weeks ago, my wife Tiffany and I visited the LBJ National Grasslands (https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/texas/offices/caddo-lyndon-b-johnson-national-grasslands) as part of a small group of people interested in “wildflowering.” We like learning about flowers, but we didn’t know that “wilderflowering” was a verb until this trip.

I thought this trip was going to be more of humdrum kind of experience. Just hike up and down trails, looking at fields of lots o https://aaronjz.com/the-infraordinary-beauty-of-wildflowers

Part of this week's practices of The Artist's Way (https://aaronjz.com/e340451e) is to partake in a "reading deprivation." I am going to work on being with my own thoughts throughout the day instead of my normal daily habit of reading a book, a selection of articles, or any other kind of social media post. This will be a good challenge. I'm looking at it this way: whatever I want to read, I need to write. So I may still share some posts on my blog throughout this time.

I https://aaronjz.com/taking-a-week-long-reading-break