Morning Coffee – A Change in Perspective

English: The complimentary Great British Break...Funny how a change in location can shift one’s perspective. Despite some snafus, I am moving through this transition with a level of calm I’ve not experienced in years.

I cannot state for certain where this peace comes from, but I would most likely attribute it to the setting in which I now find myself. When I look out the window, I see trees. Though I live in town (population less than 5,000 people) the trees are a major part of the landscape. I can’t wait for Spring to finally come to experience what it will be like to see them decked out in their green finery.

I have chosen not to hook up TV here, and that has been an interesting withdrawal. I am rediscovering my youthful first love, however. The library is three blocks’ walk from the house, and it is full of these things called books. As long as I have one waiting, unread, in the house, I think I will be able to kick my TV addiction. Spirit has been after me about this one for years, and I knew this move was the one that would cut that cord once and for all.

English: This is a picture of bookshelves in a...I used to read in the hours before bedtime, and I am re-learning that habit. The town is so small, the library is closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. When I went to get a library card on Monday morning, I noticed a lot of activity. Seems that in this town, the seniors are avid readers.

They came, mostly two by two, and went straight for the new releases shelf or to their favorite section. The librarian seemed to know their particular taste in books, and like a good waiter in a fine restaurant, brought them  to their favorites without them even having to order first. I could picture them in their comfy chairs in their living rooms with a strong light to read by, each engrossed in their book, but together. These elders don’t play bingo or bridge. They read. They continue to exercise their minds, which may explain why the light behind their eyes is still so bright. Good for them. I’m going to take a page from their book, pardon the pun.

English: Books available for Guantanamo captiv...

English: Books available for Guantanamo captives to read. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had the thought as I wandered among the shelves that we would be lost without books. Yes, we have access to infinite information via the internet, but that can all go away in an instant. Then what? I had a flash of all the apocalyptic movies I’ve ever watched that had as a theme or sub-plot the value of books, the written word, and how precious that resource truly is. Even prisoners have access to books. This whole shift away from technology and TV has me thinking, is all, but since this is  a Morning Coffee, I will move on to lighter things because I don’t want to dampen your day.

She is really good, this librarian. When I grabbed a book and got it home, (you only get to check out one book the first time) I quickly discovered I’d already read it, so back to the library I went. She noted the author, and led me to other, similar writers. She actually allowed me to check out two books, too, just to get me started, she said with a smile. After I told her about the TV thing, she commented “Well, I guess that means I’ll be seeing a lot of you here, then.”

English: Saltford Library A good place to get ...I also note there is no video rental place in town. Too small to support it, I guess. I took a quick inventory of the DVDs on the library shelves – in most libraries, the selection is pretty lousy – and noted that there were a lot of new releases or more recent films among the offerings. Goodie. Now I can watch those newer movies for free. Can’t beat free. The return policy on the movies is they need to be returned by the next day the library is open, so I’ll be the one in there first thing Saturday morning whenever I want to check out some movies.

I don’t know how this is going to evolve, or where it will lead me, but I can say there has been a change in my perspective. As I continue to wipe away the film of dirt from the glass, I can see the beauty of the world in which I live more clearly. For that, I am grateful.

One last side note: I was inspired to write about the library here today, and had the hit to look for related articles, which I rarely do. I find it interesting that it is National Library Week this week (April 14-20), so go support your local library. They are a precious resource.

All original material posted to this site is (c) 2013, Julie Marie. All rights reserved.

Photo credits: Wikipedia

Advertisements

4 thoughts on “Morning Coffee – A Change in Perspective

  1. Lovely read in more ways than one Julie,.. Books I have a thing for LOL.. and yes no power no internet.. no reading.. Books are precious, and Libraries are important.. with all the cutbacks here in local government many towns proposed to shut down the local libraries, there was however a big outcry and they changed their minds..
    Wishing you well in your new home 🙂

Comments are closed.
https://livingbyintuitionandinspiration.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/morning-coffee-a-change-in-perspective/
livingbyintuitionandinspiration.wordpress.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-13
47292
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:K7ZKP3HMTD2SM44LKWUUKFDYY6YIP5IS
<urn:uuid:24c8f23e-fb74-4cd8-b51f-2b57f7336bd9>
2018-03-24T00:11:26Z
192.0.78.13
text/html
sha1:5RISA6H6FDNOQUEPNWTUBEJE7ZENDKVW
<urn:uuid:f99da4d6-a3cf-4b81-9fb6-3815e6be9b2f>
https://livingbyintuitionandinspiration.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/morning-coffee-a-change-in-perspective/
length
response
<urn:uuid:e508120d-e0e3-4790-888d-7515b4237bcd>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-16-230-89.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-13
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf