Metacognition: Reading Jane Eyre

I found reading Jane Eyre to be very relaxing to my brain. The long descriptions, the attention to detail--it made me enjoy doing the homework. This was the moment of my day where I could decompress and finally take things slow. This was not something that I could quickly get through. Each page would take me between 1-2 minutes to read. When we started Jane Eyre I was frustrated that the reading homework was taking me so long. I wanted to get it done. But after the first few, I began to accept that it wasn't possible to accomplish the reading quickly and decided to try and enjoy the chunk of time that I had to set aside to read.

What else I found that was refreshing was that Jane would have a conversation with the reading and would forcefully engage me in the reading. Oftentimes, I feel that authors sometimes neglect the reader and ignore the fact that there is someone on the other side who is reading that story they created. Bronte's attention to the reader really help to keep me engaged and focused in the reading when I became so relaxed that I would realize that I had no idea what had happened in the previous few paragraphs. It was her way of telling me that I shouldn't miss any action of Jane's because the theme of love in the novel was very complex.

The thing that I will take away from reading Jane Eyre is the idea that you should be able to find excitement and enjoyment in the ordinary. Bronte would describe a house or a field with such description and passion and craft in her writing that I would find myself wrapped-up in the story. If I can notice the tiny details and be very deliberate and patient, then life will be so much more exciting. I just need to learn how to slow down the tempo of my life and observe what has always been around me, but what I've failed to notice.