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Libraries and Bookshops are magical places – they are the place where stories go and wait… for YOU. But did you know they lived a life even before you received them? It’s true.
My daughter accuses me of giving life and a voice to all inanimate objects, and truth be told: she is right. Knowing that about me, then it would be no surprise that on my walk the other day, I stopped in front of the Katonah Village Library for a just second, in wonderment and awe of what is housed just beyond the doors. Everything has a life – a moment of creation and a purpose. Everything has a story. Even stories.
Open the Door
When you step across the threshold of any library and bookshop, you have the entire world right in front of you. Actually, you have more than that. You have records of history that unfolded long before you were born. And there are studies and ideas on the birth of our planet and beyond. You could learn about anything and everything from quantum physics (I section I admittedly have never ventured into) to psychology and personal development, to the history of modern art. But the things that most feel like magic to me, are the stories beyond our world.
Stories Are Magic
One of my favorite nonfiction books in the ENTIRE world is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. She beautifully tells how… well… “magical” it is to create something. As an artist who discovered decades later that she adores working and shaping images through the use of words, I appreciated how she shared her notion on how ideas are delivered to us – how we are chosen to be the one who breathes life into the idea. It’s a gift really. Since reading it, and rereading it no less than a dozen other times, I’ve often wondered how many ideas have become tired of waiting for me and moved on to someone else? It has spurred in me the constant reminder to pay attention to my muse when she arrives.
Little Joe’s Coffee and Books,
and purchase your copy at here!
A Place for My Muse
One day, I will give her her own room, full of light and windows and painting supplies and the newest and quickest computer ready and waiting to receive all of her beautiful ideas. Until then, she arrives and pulls up a chair in the middle my dining room, which also doubles as my office and studio space. Along the wall is a drafting table that is currently covered in papers, colored pencils, pastels, and an empty easel. To the left of my artist space is a desk in the corner of the room which is where I sit writing this and a good deal of many other things. It was, in fact, the very corner which I retreated to when the idea of my book arrived one August morning, years ago. Before then, writing for me was done in the same manner which some doodle on the sides of a page. A steady stream of unconscious thoughts, randomly landing on a page. But when the idea for my book arrived, it was like she burst through the door with her arms wide open, shouting, “HOOOOONEY, I’M HOOOOOME!” Since that day, I’ve never thought of stories in the same way, and Elizabeth Gilbert validated just how magical ideas can be!
Beyond Our World
This is the very reason why I paused in awe, just for a moment, and stood in admiration in front of the Katonah Village Library. It’s why, when I walk through the doors of Little Joe’s Coffee and Books, I feel at home. These are places where stories are held in high regard – where they are celebrated and shared! They honor the process and encourage the consumption of knowledge and experience through written words. They understand how a book goes from nothing but a blank page at the hands of a writer to the gateway to an entirely different world, well beyond our own! Each tale, each character, each flower bud described lives first in the mind of the writer, and what a gift it is for us to receive them! They shape our experiences when we are young, and they remind of us days gone by when we are older. They open our eyes to different ways of life and stretch our imaginations to think beyond the possible. Hours. Years, Even entire lifetimes of work are all just beyond the threshold of any library door or bookshop. So today? Show them some love! The writers! The Bookshops. The Libraries! All of them!!!
