Nurture the mind and nurture the spirit

I have had the habit of writing and taking notes since I was in school. I wrote a diary about random things every day, wrote down things I found useful, some small stories and some poems that came to my mind… At that time, I didn’t think it was a passion or a hobby. I wrote just because I wanted to write, that’s all.

My friends often recall stories from my childhood, that whenever we got together to hang out, I was the one who told stories. Stories I read in books and newspapers. Back then, books and newspapers were rare, especially in remote coastal areas like mine.

The only printed books we had access to were textbooks borrowed from the school library. These books were circulated from class to class. Often, we never knew what the covers of these books looked like or what the patterns were, because by the time they reached our class, either the covers had been replaced with other types of hard paper, or worse, the outer covers were gone, and even the inside of the book was missing pages.

Then, some chance led me to become a professional writer, also not pre-determined, because I had a stable job. At that time, I often read newspapers so occasionally met a few authors. Hearing that I had written, they encouraged me to send articles. The first time an article was published in the Gia Lai Literature magazine, then Gia Lai newspaper, it is hard to describe how happy I was. That was the encouragement for me to write and send articles more often.

Then I became a member of the Provincial Literature and Arts Association, and every year I participated in the Gia Lai Newspaper's contributor conference, met and learned from fellow writers, and my joy with words also multiplied. I became more conscious of what I wrote and was more careful and meticulous each time I wrote something.

I often call reading and writing the journey of cultivating knowledge. The person who planted the first words in me was my father. He trained me to have the habit of reading, buying books for me wherever I went. Until now, even though he is in his seventies, my father still buys me books that he finds interesting.

People like my father, although not much educated in school, read deeply and understand widely in a strange way. My father is knowledgeable and can talk about many fields in depth. That is because he often reads and researches from books.

From what he learned, he guided us. Not only my father, but almost everyone in his generation had the habit of reading and self-studying. They worked in many different fields and professions. Some were soldiers, engineers, doctors, and even manual laborers… but they could play musical instruments, write poetry, and compose music.

Sometimes, I use books as gifts for children as an encouragement for them to participate in the world of words. A book does not need to make any sound, but it can make people feel the positive energy transmitted to them, when they quietly read each page. A book does not need to give any hand to make people feel like they are being embraced and soothed from the ups and downs of their wounds. A book can make people think and live differently when they encounter the light that shines to the deepest level of their being.

People who read books often have deep understanding and broad thinking. Being in contact with them is like reading a valuable book. It is a way to nurture the mind, when people cultivate in their hearts the layers of knowledge acquired from reading books.

Someone once said: The moment we persuade a child to cross the magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. For me, that has been proven true in my own experience.

Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/nuoi-chu-duong-tam-post329603.html