Healthy Clubbing

Every month I have a date set in stone on my calendar. It’s one of those events I WILL NOT MISS.

It all started more than five years ago when I meet someone named Janet at a conference three hours away from my home. We discovered, by accident, that we lived seven miles from one another. I quickly learned that Janet happened to be a spunky lady with a penchant for wise cracks.

My new acquaintance became a welcome part my life with a ripple effect that carried on in the form of a shared love for reading. Our passion ignited the beginning of a book club that is a source of stress relief and social connection like nothing else I’ve experienced.

You may wonder why a book club is so influential. If you have the right combination of ingredients, the club can be the highlight of your month, like it is for me. Start out with a snarky, hilarious leader, and add friends that bring a seasoning of personalities to the mix. Throw in a rotation of lovely homes and a sprinkle of delicious food and drinks next. Oh, yeah, there’s also a book.

As you can imagine, the combination of opening our homes to one another, enjoying tasty sustenance, and mingling among spicy personalities can produce a very good time. To me it feels like a reunion every time to get together.

Beyond that, there are additional benefits that I’ve found over the years. Spending time in each home transfers to a greater level of intimacy with each member of the book club. Over the months and years, we have shared triumphs and challenges, hugs and tears, and confided in one another. In short, I’ve grown to love every single one of them.

Within the period of time of our club, we’ve read at least 65 books and only six were my choice. That means I have expanded my world view, understanding of cultures, and learned a few things along the way. So, with all these fabulous aspects of book clubbing, how could one top all that?

When we read, something wonderful happens. Our brains engage in ways that mimic our responses to movies and other forms of visual entertainment. The cool part is that those images form based on our personal experiences and draw upon our creativity. My favorite part is how reading taps into our emotional connections and increases our level of empathy. It makes sense that reading draws us in mentally and engages us deeply into the world of others, including locations and situations we would normally never join. A good book includes characters we relate to in some way, but we get to let the fictional or nonfictional world go through the struggles before landing on their feet while we sit in our cozy chair safe and sound. Discussing our books within a trusted gathering brings opportunities for vital social relationships to flourish and plenty of laughter, which is exceptionally healthy and just plain fun.

I encourage you to look for opportunities to share your passion with others in your favorite way. It may very well open your world to new adventures and season your life with happy memories to savor in the years to come.