Memories at the library

It's natural for us to want to make memories, curating our schedules to work around a carefully planned vacation that is sure to make them. We organize our lives in compartmentalized sections, always planning a section for relaxation and enjoyment, and look at locations or places that will fulfill these requirements. Yet, perhaps we don't stop and think about the places we routinely visit as places to make memories. The places you orbit, travel, and frequent can fall into a rhythm that rarely gets identified as anything but what it seems like: usual. However, let me challenge you to look at it from a different perspective.

Maybe the truest memories we make are the steady, everyday ones that we constantly live. Whenever you walk down the street and simply observe the scenery. Whenever you drive down the road and name the things as they pass as a sort of game, to yourself or with others in the car. Whenever you visit a place that you see almost every day like the grocery store or the gas station. These memories are collected and kept in a seamless way so it doesn't stand out. It's simply the baseline flow of thoughts you live with every day. Yet, when you draw attention to them, you start to realize how much they actually mean.

A visit to the library can be something that builds, not just impresses a few times and then disappears from thought. There are so many people, especially families, that come to the library not really seeing the potential of making it part of the regular schedule. Libraries aren't generally seen as big and flashy. They don't pull in the masses as a fun and exciting part of a city's venue, but it certainly can be like that if you give it a try. Even so, a library tends to slowly make space in the mind and heart as a safe place to simply be. No expectations. You can return time-and-time again and simply enjoy existing. Sometimes, people (even adults) just need a place like that.

Not everything in life has to be about catching the next big moment, you can experience lasting memories simply from existing in place that holds space for you. That's what makes things last a lifetime.