On January 29, 2020, I renewed my library card. That was the last day I had set foot into the library. It closed shortly after due to Covid-19.
As the days went on, I found myself missing my more than once weekly trips to this beautiful establishment. No longer could I linger at one of the small tables with my headphones playing Nat King Cole as I worked on my writing. No longer could I stop to check out a book on whatever my interest was that day. To me, this library was a world created just for me – a sanctuary from the busyness of life and nothing but a doorway to knowledge, adventure and imagination.
“Do yourself a favor and love wisdom. Learn all you can, then watch your life flourish and prosper!” Proverbs 19:8 TPT
Although it opened back up with very specific parameters, I couldn’t seem to find my way back. Until today.
I walked into the library and found only myself to be in there among the two employees. I was the proverbial kid in a candy store. I wanted a book from every section, to pause before each genre and load my arms up with more books than I could handle. I was back in my little piece of Heaven where I stood wide-eyed and grinning from ear to ear beneath my mask.
I had it all to myself. I walked each row, each genre and forced myself to a limit of only books I could carry in my arms. 10 books to be exact. I found my sanctuary again. I found a quenching to the thirst the vacancy had created.
It seems silly, doesn’t it? To miss a simple place like a library and be saddened by its removal from your life. It was my place. My place to go to escape, to learn, to dream . . . my sacred space. Outside the doors was a busy, chaotic, stressful world surround by demands, but here was peace.
We all need a place to escape to – a healthy place. A place to call our own. I wonder, what is that place for you?
Raelyn Pracht 