Day 73 ❦ Give Practically

Day 73 ❦ Give Practically

THE GIFT: Boxes of Books

It probably does not matter if the entire world decides to have their information delivered to them entirely electronically, or via e-reading opportunities - I am a tactile person. I love books, the love the way a book feels in my hand, I love holding a book in my arms, I buy books just because I love the way their cover feels - I love real live books. And, I am and equal opportunity book collector - if I own a book, it becomes part of my collection. I have shelf after shelf after shelf filled and overflowing in my office and home with my collections. In the attic, the collection continues, with books from my younger life and the few remnants from a childhood lost. When I went away to college, I took a few of my favorite Nancy Drew books with me, which was fortunate because after I left, my remaining personal belongings were all thrown away. Hmmm...maybe I am beginning to identify the origins of my pack-rat behavior...

Every now and then, actually every six months, I go through fits of cleaning where I just want to get rid of everything.
De-cluttering, cleansing, the opposite of nesting, a friend of mine calls it giving your house an enema...whatever you call it - I want to do it - and I am getting ready to enter that particular phase. Usually in a big fit I schedule a yard sale and just get it all out, layer after layer. I can feel it sneaking up on me. This big cleaning feeling usually accompanies a big work project and so I have to try to ignore the crazy cleaning gig until the work is done and until I can take the time that a deep clean requires, it seeps out in little jags of cleaning.

Today is one of those days, I feel the big clean hitting and have already scheduled the yard sale for a weekend in a couple of weeks, but I went to the shelves this morning to find a reference for an article I am writing and get distracted by a few books that are just screaming “get rid of me,”so I start pulling them off the shelves and putting them in boxes and bags, anything I can find to hold the books that are now jumping off the shelves. Work forgotten, I go with it and before I know it I have over a hundred books just waiting to leave my possession and go live with someone else. I load up the books in my car hoping that I will figure out what to do with them after I have gotten some work done. But this huge giving opportunity is nagging at me. Trying to ignore the desire to get rid of the books permanently, I turn to my computer and start working through my e-mails hoping to get back into work mode and finally I am back writing the article I was supposed to be working on.

Later in the afternoon I receive an advertisement from the library about a book sale that is coming up next weekend and the request is for both volunteers and books. The book sale benefits both the American Association of University Women and the Library and I can’t believe it - I drop everything and drive right over to the library and unload the books. Whew! It feels so great to know that there will be multiple benefits from my donations, now I can turn to the empty shelves and start thinking about what happens next.

❦ Give Practically