The Blessings of Books: finding your calling among the things that bring you Happiness.

Before our big move and trip to Thailand, all three or four hundred books of ours were carefully arranged into cardboard boxes, taped in, and then abandoned in a dark storage room.

They lay dormant… all the magic of their words isolated from the minds and eyes who wished to soak them in.

We flew to Thailand, stayed three months, came back and then moved.

It was only today that my brother, dad, and I lugged five boxes from our storage building and dropped them off at our room by the empty shelves.

We had some books already – some that we’d picked up since we had come back and a couple others that had flown around the wide world with us (and still others were some that we rescued from their cardboard oubliettes because we had to read them. Like the Wingfeather Saga down there).

I slit the boxes open and felt a strange relief. In fact, as I look at the books now, while sitting on my bed, I feel just plain fulfilled, satisfied.

I love feeling the spines and looking again at the worn spines of the books I’ve cherished. But there is also the wonderful taste of a new book. While unpacking, I found myself gingerly handling a couple novels and biographies that I’ve not read and feeling the thrill of a new story, a new world, and a new character all beneath my fingertips. I love the aesthetics of books… and don’t get me started about their scents…

It took around two hours to get all five boxes liberated onto the shelves, and all the books are a little buddy-buddy because we’re definitely lacking some space but that’s okay. Considering this is most certainly not all of our books, I’m going to be looking for a lot more room in the future.

I’m excited for the day that I’ll be squeezing my own books onto these little shelves. And that’s part of the thing that keeps me writing. It’s the love of books and bookish things that motivate me.

God creates people for different things.

Books are in my veins. Although I’m as clueless as anyone else as to why dusty old words excite my writer friends and family and I, I do think that God has placed a love for writing in our hearts so that He can use our hands and minds to praise Him.

God has filled us each with different desires and a combination of unique passions and it’s His way of leading us to glorify Him through our actions.

So, while I’m over here geeking out about the way my favorite fantasy book series smells… find those things that God has made you for and stick with them because He loves you and He gave you those passions for a purpose.

Until next time,

With a spark and a flame,

Indy.