How many love letters have you received in your life? Have you saved them? No grown up ever forgets the love they felt when they were read to as a child. The intimacy that lives inside a shared reading experience is not something one forgets.
Recalling childhood reading and their impact is to saunter down memory lane—discovering some of what made you who you are today. To read to a child is like rereading your own childhood—the one you had or the one you wished you had had. The words our parents read to us are haunted by a sense of well being.
When my sons were little, I started the habit of dating and inserting the location of where we were when we read the book. Another habit of mine is to write an inscription—it confirms that every book you give is indeed a gift.
I now pass on those books to other children and I inscribe them to the current recipient of the book. The inscriptions I wrote to my sons, still stand. The sentiment continues to be—Dare to dream. Put on your roller skates. Go and see the world and make a difference along the way. Dare to be who you are. Dare to Become who you want to be. Love, forever and a day.
My sons are now adults with children of their own. My inscriptions have not change, but I harbor one additional wish for them now—embrace the idea that the journey to Dare to become the man you want to be—never stops and books are wonderful companions to have on your journey, to know and better understand yourself and the world. Often in books, we meet the one character we are most reluctant to know—ourselves.
