Retreating From Reality

I have a bit of a revelation for you. Are you ready?

The world is full of irritating people.

It is even possible that some of the irritating people live with me.

What’s that? I refuse to believe that I could possibly be equally irritating.

Irritated or irritating; it is clear I have needed a bit of a break from reality lately.

My ideal break from reality would involve a trip to London with lots of book shopping, tea-drinking, and cake-eating. That isn’t going to happen anytime soon (which might have something to do with the irritating-irritated issue) so I have had to figure out a new way to escape from reality.

I am grabbing bits of escapism where I can and one of the main ways I am doing that is to make time for uninterrupted reading. I read a lot and get through a lot of books but lately, my reading has had to fit in around my life. I’ll read for half an hour with breakfast, twenty minutes after lunch, a few chapters before I fall asleep. I’ll reward myself for getting a certain number of items crossed off my to-do list by sitting down to read one chapter then I’ll jump up and keep working. I enjoy those snatched moments with my book but I miss the feeling of being completely immersed; that feeling of being dragged back to the surface when someone talks to you.

One day last week I was the only one home. We have lived in this house for four months and this was the first time I was the only one home. My husband is retired now. My daughter was on summer break. My son was looking for a job. Someone was always around. On this day my daughter was at school, my son was at work, and my husband was walking in a nearby park. The house was silent and full of things I should be doing. I ignored them all, sat down with my book, and read for two hours. It was glorious. Today, almost a week later, I don’t remember what book I was reading, I don’t think it was anything special, but I do remember the feeling of being totally involved in the story. No one talked to me, no one needed anything, even the cat was asleep. For a couple of hours, the world and all its irritations fell away. I was in a different world watching different people live out their lives on the screen of my imagination.

Slowly, my family came home. They chatted and told me about their days. They wanted food and for me to do things. I had to put my book down and rejoin the real world.

It was a less irritating world filled with less irritating people. I would like to believe I was less irritating too.

Sometimes, an escape into another world, a fictional world, is all you need to make this world a little bit better.