Dear reader,

Normally, I read for about an hour every day.

But I just checked my stats for this past month and, uhhh… yikes. It’s chaos. High highs and low lows. Have a look:

I encourage you to go check out your own stats.

If you’re open to sharing with me, I’d be really curious to know if and how your reading behavior has changed in the last month. And, beyond that, if you can connect it to your overall moods and experiences.

Ages ago, I was a yoga instructor. I remember when I first began to understand that mood impacts behavior and behavior impacts mood. (The word yoga comes from the word for “yoke,” which means “connect.” If you can really tap into the idea that everything is connected, you’re pretty much a yoga master.)

All of this connects to reading.

If you’re feeling scattered, anchor your reading and you can anchor your life. If you’re feeling trapped, read something that takes you far away. If you’re feeling overburdened, read something light. If you’re feeling slothful or sluggish, read something hella long and dense.

If you don’t want to think about thinking but you still want to think, look no further than the Article of the Day. We’ve got you covered.

But above all else, be intentional. And, of course, finish.

Apparently, the journalism industry is shifting towards news (and headlines) with more positive messages. That concerns me. The purpose of news isn’t to give people what they want. Beyond that, I’m not even sure that it will make people feel any better.

The other morning, I surprisingly “enjoyed” Rising Tides, Troubled Waters: The Future of our Ocean. It’s not a positive situation. Day after day I skipped it because the headline was stressing me. When I finally read it, I felt weirdly at ease. Knowledge creates awareness and awareness leads to peace. Even if the circumstances are rough.

The barrage of headlines is crazy-making. But deep reading is hard work, and hard work feels good. Hundreds of years ago, Kahlil Gibran wrote, “Work is love made visible.” Thus, reading is love made visible.

Finally, here’s Rebecca Solnit riffing on depth in an article I just read this morning:

But this is also a time of depth for those spending more time at home and more time alone, looking outward at this unanticipated world. We often divide emotions into good and bad, happy and sad, but I think they can equally be divided into shallow and deep, and the pursuit of what is supposed to be happiness is often a flight from depth, from one’s own interior life and the suffering around us – and not being happy is often framed as a failure.

If anyone wants to hop on Zoom, hit me up. I’d love to connect with some readers I haven’t met yet!

-Bill

P.S. Mark your calendars: I’m doing a live-streamed virtual salon with the folks at Digital Void on April 29th at 7p EDT. Here’s a link to register.