“...For what is happiness but growth in peace,
The timeless sense of time when furniture
Has stood a life's span in a single place,
And as the air moves, so the old dreams stir
The shining leaves of present happiness?
No one has heard thought or listened to a mind,
But where people have lived in inwardness
The air is charged with blessing and does bless;
Windows look out on mountains and the walls are kind.“
—from “The Work of Happiness“
I‘ve read a lot of “my life got derailed and now I‘m going to open a bookstore” novels, but so far this is the only one that looks anything like my experiences working in a bookstore.
#BookHaul from The Book Barn in Niantic, CT. Can you believe I visited exactly one structure in their sprawling, 3-location empire before my hands got too cold and I quit? 😅🥶 My wallet gives thanks to Mother Nature.
Her sentence about having her “real life” just resonates. Summer is a lovely season. It also tends to be a busy social season. Routine is shifted, personal time is allocated differently, and I find my reading life has to become one I fight for in the summer months. It‘s nice to be able to shift in and out of real life for a bit.
I am still slowly savoring May Sarton‘s words. She‘s got me contemplating the clusters of my life and finding comfort in the knowledge they occur. I am hoping to embrace a brief cluster of bookish solitude this weekend. 🌻💛
This is today's poem from the poetry Advent calendar I'm subscribed to (https://mailchi.mp/anamcara/anam-cara-advent-calendar-2024), which I enjoyed with a mug of apple cinnamon green tea from my tea Advent calendar! (edited) 3mo