Read for life.

Comparatively speaking, LIFE IS SHORT.
What do we spend most of our life doing?
Reading.

In one way or another our lives are involved in reading everyday and in many of the things we do.
Just look at the various ways we read - and this is not taking into consideration the work place or careers!

• We wake up in the morning and READ the time off our watch or alarm clock.
• We go have breakfast and we READ the labels on the cereal box
• We take the milk out the refrigerator and READ the expiry date
• READING the time lets us know how we are progressing in the day
• In the car we READ the dashboard and other instruments
• As we drive we READ road signs, adverts and banners along the road
• The newspapers are READ
• Our calendar or agenda for the day is READ
• We decide to see a movie and we READ what is showing
• We watch the movie and READ the pictures and listen to the words
• Going shopping and we READ the shop names we go to
• The product labels and prices of the items are READ as we seek what we are looking for.

There are very few activities in a day that we can complete without reading.  Sleep is one of them and thank heavens for that!

It is hard to imagine living without being able to read text, writing or books yet there are many people in the world who go through each day without a clue of how to READ.  I cannot image being in that situation.  The ability to read is something I have always taken for granted!
Yet there are people, even in some of the most advanced countries, that are illiterate!  I cannot even begin to imagine what they are missing!
Can you imagine not being able to pick up a paper and READ the news or stories it contains?  Or getting a letter and maybe recognising who it is from by the handwriting but not being able to read it?
Reading is a skill we should all be so very thankful for.
It enriches our lives, builds character, increases knowledge and understanding.  It opens the world to us.
Through reading we have ways to assist us in every aspect of lives.  It provides a way of addressing the innumerable challenges and problems that we face on a daily basis and, through the art of being able to write, provides a way in which we can touch and affect the lives of many others.
Where would we be today if it were not for the fact that from the earliest of times there have been people who have been able to read and to write.  People who have recorded their experiences, their joys and their frustrations.  People who have documented, sometimes in the finest and most intricate detail, their lives and their experiences so that we can benefit from this written word!