Thanksgiving may be over, but wouldn't it be nice if we could all carry it with us into the holidays, and even into the New Year? I don't know about you, but when I redirect my attention to the good things in life, I feel so much better. A little gratitude goes a long way, especially when there seem to be so many negative vibes floating through the air.
If gratitude came in the form of a library book, then it seems to me most of us would do one of five things with it:
- Let it sit on the shelf without ever reading it. If we forget to return it, we will have to pay a fine.
- Read every last word of it, and then return it. Some of it might stay with us for a time, or we might forget about it until something reminds us of it years later.
- Pick it up from time to time, marking our favorite spots as we go along. We may have to return it eventually, but then we end up buying a copy because we love it so much. It makes us happy.
- Lose it before we've even had a chance to look at it.
- Never check it out in the first place.
Of course, never checking it out might not be a bad thing. You could be writing your own gratitude journal as you go along. Or you might be thinking about and expressing gratitude in other ways - like through art, music, or volunteering, for example. Gratitude isn't really something someone can GIVE you, is it? Doesn't it have to come from the inside out?
In this crazy world of ours, it's not always easy to keep gratitude from collecting dust on the shelf, or inside our hearts. So, in the upcoming season of giving, might it be the one gift we should go to great lengths to find, wrap, unwrap, and share with others? The best part of this gift is that it's FREE! Anyone can give and get it, as long as our hearts are open to it.
And so, I've been thinking about some important chapters in my life that I've perhaps taken for granted lately. It was a School Library Journal article, What librarians make, which made me want to take my library advocacy efforts off the shelf. My gratitude temporarily became contaminated with anger, though, until I found an inspiring article about a local public library. It really cheered me up.
And then I thought, sometimes it's not just about taking a book off the shelf. It's about turning the page and moving forward. That means engaging in conversations with people who think like you do as well as those who do not. It means reading the words of others, but also writing your own.
All I know is that I would not be the person I am today had I never had access to a school or public library. And I am thankful to Benjamin Franklin and all the librarians out there for that.
So, what kind of gratitude is hiding on your shelf? Are you listening to your brain so much that your heart hasn't had a say?
What kind of package does your gratitude come in?
