What you read has power

I've been having an ongoing conversation with a couple different friends about the impact that reading can have on a person. I've actually had to stop reading certain genres of books for the moment (some favorites, which hasn't been easy) because of the effect they've had on my whole being, and the way they've contributed to some of the spiritual, physical and emotional lows that I've been trying to regulate and level out a bit this last while.

Anyway, I've been reading this fantastic book titled "Living Prayer" by a man named Robert Benson lately. (I posted a while back about another book of his - "Between the Dreaming and the Coming True" which was also hugely powerful, and think I may have to read everything of his that I can get my hands on, judging by the two I've read so far.) And, in the midst of "Living Prayer", in a chapter on the impact of what we read on our spiritual and prayer lives, I came across the following paragraph or two, and was profoundly affected by them. (And annoyed, too, because they absolutely confirmed a point that a dear friend has been making to me, one I really kind of wanted her to be wrong about, while being simultaneously absolutely certain that she was right.)

Benson writes:

I know for a fact that there is an absolute and direct relationship between what I read and what I write. I also know that I cannot pray and I cannot be centered and I cannot do the work that has been given me to do whenever what I am reading is not conducive to such.

I got hooked once on a set of murder mysteries. The good news is that I enjoyed them all immensely and I finished the entire set. The bad news is that there are seventeen of them. For months, I was reading stories about murder and deceit, about betrayal and abuse. (It was a little like reading Genesis, now that I think of it.) The whole time, I was wondering why it was that my spirit was so thirsty and my prayer was so dry. I was starving myself and wondering where my strength had gone.
(Living Prayer, pg. 116-117)