5 Books That Have Shaped Me

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Something a little different on the blog today – a guest post! I have some lovely blogging friends covering the blog for a few days over the course of my time away in Mongolia. I’m super excited to have Megan Hallier from Just Peachy Digital on This Splendid Shambles today, talking about one of my favourite things: books.

I’ve know Megan for a little while now (we’re friends IRL), but didn’t know she had a blog too until late last year. Her posts are stunningly written, with beautiful themes and thoughts, and I’m so pleased she said yes when I asked if she’d like to guest post. I’ll stop chatting now; enjoy!

I’ve always been the biggest fan of books. Growing up, you could always find me tucked away in a corner with my head in a book or creating worlds of my own to escape to. I love nothing more than opening a book and getting lost someplace far away from here.

A few years ago, I started collecting quotes because I had found that there are some authors who have a way of saying things that make a whole lot of sense to me. Reading has always made me feel like I’m a part of something. One of the most beautiful things about books is the way they allow us to feel accepted and understood.

We might not fit in, in the world that surrounds us, but books provide a perfect escape. A welcome invitation to some place sweeter and kinder for us, gentle souls.

So picking just five books to talk about today was extremely difficult. In a way, I am a product of every book I have read. My thoughts and opinions have been influenced by every word I’ve ever consumed. And I feel I owe a great deal to the authors who devote themselves to articulating the words I fail to come up with.

This list could be endless but I decided to restrain myself to just the five. These books touched my heart, met me where I was at and in some cases saved me.

I hope they’ll find their way onto your must-read list!

One: Set Apart Femininity, by Leslie Ludy

This book played a pivotal role in shaping my faith. I read it just as I was heading off to university, leaving home for the first time. I read these words right when I was feeling homesick and sentimental and in desperate need to something to cling on to. It changed the way I thought about God and what it means to call myself a follower of Jesus.

Before reading this book, I was a little (dare I say it) complacent in my faith. I was a little wishy-washy and lukewarm. I was all there on Sundays but during the wee,k God wasn’t really on my mind a whole lot. What stood out from this book for me was the call to the women of our generation. That we can be world changers. That we can be peacemakers, hope-bringers and good-news carriers. When I read that, it unlocked something within me. I want that life. I don’t want to be comfortable or complacent. I want to fight for what I believe in and see change happen.

Two: Looking for Lovely, by Annie F. Downs

I’m a fan of just about any self-help book or memoir-style book, and this book is kinda fabulous because it’s a bit of both. It’s a self-help book disguised as a memoir.

Annie shares stories from her own life and challenges us as the reader to seek the beauty in our own ordinary lives.

After reading this book, I straight away went and made myself a little happiness jar where I began to collect joyful moments each day, and I can honestly say the practice was life-changing. Taking the time to write down each little blessing on a scrap of paper and putting it into my special jar made me more aware of the goodness that envelops me on a daily basis. I found collecting these moments made me more aware of the present and calmed the anxiety that tends to bubble away within me.

Three: Walking On Water, by Madeleine L’Engle

I think my whole life, I’ve been trying to squish myself into this box. There is this person whom I believe I am supposed to be. She’s intelligent, sciencey and loud. Unfortunately, I’m not really any of those things. It’s only taken me twenty-one years, but I think I’ve finally figured that out.

This book was one of the first I’ve read which actually gave me permission to be myself. The creative, romantic, whimsical person I’ve spent my whole life suppressing. It painted not only a picture of who I am as a creative and why art is necessary. But it also pieced together how God and art are so closely intertwined.

Once I realised I was created this way on purpose and that my writing, my art is important work…it changed everything. I no longer felt the need to seek validation from others, and so my art became an extension of myself. Something raw, untouched and relatable.

Four: The In-Between, by Jeff Goins

You know how you’ve got some friends you’ve known your whole life and others who you just met, but it feels exactly the same? That’s this book for me. We just met but I knew instantly that we would be best friends.

I’m an extremely impatient person. I’m a busybody. I hate sitting idly by when I could be going somewhere or doing something. But this book reminded me of the need to slow down. To appreciate the small and simple everyday moments which string together to form our lives. It’s easy to get caught up in chasing after the big, flashy, camera-worthy moments in life, but in actual fact, it is the often unnoticed, unimpressive moments that are the most sacred.

We are always going to be hoping, wishing and praying for the next big thin,g but this book showed me that there is wonder in the waiting. We find peace, rest and often our true selves right here.

Five: It Was Me All Along, by Andie Mitchell

In high school, I struggled for several years with an eating disorder, and this book was one that helped me in my journey to recovery.

Andie battled with her weight her whole life, being too heavy and then too small, and eventually she came to a place of forgiveness and acceptance of her body. This story was so beautifully written and so close to home that I remember being in tears by the end of it.

Ultimately, I realised that I could spend my whole life fighting my body or I could learn to love and accept this temporary home. I also just loved the way Andie relates to food. For a long time it was her comforter, and then it became her enemy and then finally she fell in love with it and created a blog which she dedicates to sharing good food.

It’s a beautiful thing that sometimes in life, the things that appear to be our biggest weaknesses can actually be our greatest strengths.

Megan is a lover of all things poetic, romantic and whimsical. Her passion is turning painful experiences into poetry. Making lemonade out of lemons and finding sunshine in even the darkest of places.