“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.”
― Annie Dillard
There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet. Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading -- that is a good life.
You can find this passage in Annie Dillard’s little gem of a book — The Writing Life
I would change Annie's initial words slightly. I would say: 'I read poems as one would breathe air, to fill up and live'. Then it would capture, for me, so much about how those with a true poetic nature perpetually see themselves in this world, because they are rarely, if ever, driven by a desire for material things. And how perfectly Annie's last line captures this: 'a life spent reading - that is a good life.' I couldn't agree more!
Yes! I am manifesting this life now.