Travel Into Worlds

Lost in Libraries

Norfolk Public Library

I have not gone missing. I have been in a phase of percolating. The new year began with new things to contemplate. In my community there is a particular woman that is nearly 90 years old. She is to me, like a very rooted Tree with a lifetime of knowledge. It is a deep privilege to participate in our town activities with her. The grace with which she offers up perspective and viewpoint is honed to an artform. I aspire to her cadence and yet I am so far off from the beauty of a time of before. I will always hold her in my minds eye as one of the great ones that walk this earth. They are among us everywhere. It is in our deeper looking that the wisdom of humble tableau is laid out before us. A painting to study - then carry within our blood learning. Thank you.

Norfolk Public Library

A recent big undertaking I have participated in is Passport to Libraries in Connecticut. This is a program of visiting any and all of the libraries participating. There are 153 libraries that were registered. That is not even all of the libraries in Connecticut. I did have a plan to visit all of the libraries. It was and is a huge undertaking to accomplish in just one month. Basically - it’s a full time job to get to all of those places. I brought my own little book and had the librarians stamp the book and give me their autographs. It was such a surprise for them to be asked that by a patron. It was so much fun for me!

While Connecticut is a small state - it is a windy road place and nothing is really very direct when getting from here to there. Especially if one is trying to avoid any highways - which I generally do. One only needs to get off the major through ways and you will find such sweet beauty all over the state. I think if a person just cruised through the state down Route 84, 91 or 95 - you will just see business and industry and speeding vehicles. In fact I know people that don’t even live in this state and yet come to work here and make their living wage to then go back to live in another state. Connecticut is prosperous on many levels. So prosperous that there are people from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Maine that all come here to earn money and then retreat back to their enclaves of heaven in their minds. I think all of those coming here to use up the resources or earn their livings should acknowledge that it allows them to then go back and pursue their Good Life. Perhaps don’t disparage that which you do not know without closer examination.

While I was driving around the back roads to Connecticut libraries I found something quite unexpected. I have traveled around Connecticut all of my life. I have lived a few other places long ago but, have settled here for the past decades. I put down roots. What I found travelling in Connecticut was so much beauty. I returned again and again to the idea of - THIS is what’s here. People often don’t travel very far out of their mindset that has become a repetitive pattern of same ideas. If you have an idea of a place - it takes some effort and working at - to change those rutted, mud-encased layers of thinking. What do I hold about a place - a people - that slides into a narrow idea of complication? Am I willing to let go of my repeated words of a people or a place that it is one thing? I think without a conscious practice of revisiting our thinking patterns - we barely ever escape these ritualistic ideas of our inner knowing. This knowing that is really an unknowing - shining out from words of arrogance, ignorance, intolerance, privilege, negative/violent thoughts - mostly observation in surface dismissal of placemaking.

Connecticut is filled with beauty. One highlight during all of my visiting was seeing thousands upon thousands of daffodils in bloom! It has been a banner year for those yellow faced beauties. I saw them on the sides of roads, in people’s gardens, in front of libraries, in graveyards, in fields and meadows, next to mailboxes, singly planted in random places out of the blue - all showing signs of people longing for beauty and color in springtime. It was marvelous. I will never forget the seeing of it all. There are particular places in Connecticut where you can go to visit fields and acreages of daffodils - you will have to hunt these out yourself. Catching the daffodils at just the right moment is an artform all over the state - it cannot be planned specifically. I hope you are lucky enough to find them.

I suppose some states have secrets. Don’t we each have them? I saw during the eclipse time people talking on their social media accounts about their upset about other people coming from out of state to their secret places to view the eclipse. Yet, the reliance on tourist dollars is very much counted upon. I don’t think you get to have it both ways. Hate the tourists- tell them not to stay - yet ask for their dollars. I don’t think that you say that you care about others - people’s - then say, “stay out of my state”. I won’t name the particular state that I have seen this the most in. Protests go on for people in other countries - yet, they actively say - stay out of our state. It’s absurd - telling - confirming and also disappointing. Holding a world view of openness in words while in action is the absolute opposite of such a belief. I am glad the daffodils cannot hear this. They just go on blooming and spreading a way of being that invites you into an inner smiling. That is the ethos that I find meaning in. My wise friend is a living, breathing example of living in this way. To be known as that collection of wisdom and living to me is the highest ideal. We each have secrets that we can begin to reveal to ourselves.

There is a tremendous amount I have found in my visiting libraries this month in Connecticut. I found dedicated librarians. I found some new friends. I found information to bring back to share with my own library. Libraries are magical places. The hold seed libraries, books, library of things, resources, classes, story time, author talks - so many, many things.

Libraries are gifts that stand waiting with doors wide open to share all that they have with anyone who enters. Even if you are not from that hometown of that particular library. Where else can you find that? A public library is a gift that shows us that all are welcome to partake. You will not find a librarian saying - “why are you here, what do you want, you are not welcome”. It is a great example of democratic ideals - where all need to be included in an a-political way. You will find librarians demonstrating inclusiveness, curiosity, love of learning, an exploratory world view, observation, community connecting, deeper thinking - always a please come back and visit with us again.

We can all take a page from that library book of learning. Are we being like a library in our behavior? These are great institutions. I think a tremendous job to hold would be - Ambassador For Libraries! I would sign up for that job. I hope that you each support your local library to the best of your ability. You can volunteer, assist with a Seed Library, offer a class, join your Friends of the Library group, donate money as you are able, help with technology, attend events - so many ways to participate. As an adult - I often like to just go and sit in the children’s section of the library and look at the beautiful children’s books. It keeps my imagination well and active. It allows me a chance to breathe in lovely art and sentiment with story of meaning that speaks to my inner young child. This in turn keeps me an excited adult in the world.

Thank you for traveling with me a bit into libraries in Connecticut. They are each unique and magical places. It is all there for each of us in our communities. I hope you’ll find your way in as your world opens wider with the lens of your Public Library.