Library Stillness

We don’t usually stay for long. Just find your books and let’s get going. That’s how we roll these last few years since outgrowing storytime and needing places to go and things to do with those busy little preschool hands.

But today’s visit evolves into more than the norm. After finding our books and choosing which covers carries the most promise for the next few weeks, we find ourselves among the delight of the stillness and the glory of the order that surrounds.

We approach the couches and the perfectly child-sized chairs and decide they fit perfectly.

The chairs and the quiet fit perfectly today. I hadn’t realized until I made myself notice. The order of this place is exactly what I needed today. I hadn’t realized how unsettled my mind had become until I made myself be still and join the order that is this place of refuge today.

So I wait until I feel the quiet within. I watch them read, watch the traffic outside, and I pay mind to the refuge of the order and the stillness that we enjoy.

Oh, how I do love the library.

Especially today.

My eyes move to the window behind us. My soul feels messy today, like the snow outside.