Sometimes it's important to stop, and just pay very close attention.

I’ve been trying to find ways to keep myself busy… in an effort to ward away “all things that ail.”

I am following some very good advice from a friend of mine who said to me (when I started on this journey), “Keep your schedule full, volunteer and take some classes.  Enough said.”

And what great advice it is.

I have been spending time once a week taking my little friend Polly to the library. She is participating in the reading camp in which I am a teacher, and it is so convenient to drag her with me one day a week for a visit to the library. We read and read and read, and keep her up to date with the summer reading program offered by said local library.

It was during one of our reading sessions that I realized that the library was the perfect place to volunteer!  And so, on Monday nights, I spend a few hours helping children log their pages read on the computer, and hand out the “golden tickets” that they place in various prize boxes.

I’ve been able to see many old friends, and I’ve met some lovely new ones.   It’s fascinating to watch the families interact, and I simply love the smell of books.

It was slow this week, and I was sitting quietly at the table daydreaming.  It was then I noticed an older Asian couple slowly walk into our children’s department.  The gentlemen walked first, stooped and struggling a bit as he walked. His hands were clasped behind his back as he patiently put one foot in front of the other.  The wife walked carefully a few paces behind, her hands clasped behind her, trying her best to keep up.  Her head was also bowed, and I wondered what in the world they were doing there.

They walked slowly towards the back of the large room to what I thought might be the bathrooms.  There weren’t many people in the children’s section, and so my first thought was that they must be going to the bathroom.

I was wrong.

They stopped at the easy reading section, and each looked at a different shelf.  The gentleman slowly removed a book and put it under his arm.  The woman did the same.  They turned and walked slowly to a table and two chairs located near a large window and carefully sat down.  They placed their books and the table in front of themselves and the husband slowly opened his.  I watched in fascination as he read slowly but surely to his wife.  She watched and listened very intently.   After he was done, she opened her book and did the same.  He was just as avid a listener as she was. 

When she was done she closed her book and they both quietly peered out the window.  They sat content for quite some time.  And then they stood up, pushed in their chairs, returned the books to exactly where they had found them and shuffled slowly back out the door.

And I smiled.

It’s these lovely surprises that I (accidentally) witness that make my heart happy.