Books

I love books. Whenever I go into a book store I feel like a kid in a candy shop. I usually head straight to the journals first. I am always in need of a new journal to write my thoughts into. Usually after I find the perfect journal, I head to the cook book isle. I collect cook books and recipes. There is nothing like a good recipe to make my mouth water. I love to cook, it calms me after a long hard day at work. There is something therapeutic about cooking. I feel like all is well with the world and in my life when I put together the ingredients of a full proof recipe like Chicken Marsala, or Pasta Figioli. Both recipes I grew up on and have been in my family for generations. I have always had a dream to write a cook book of my own some day. I just never get the time....

After I am finished in the cook book section of a book store, I always head to the Christian books next. I try to look for an author I have never read before. I found a book once written by a monk named Thomas Merton entitled "The Seven Story Mountain". This book changed my life in a profound way. It urged me to seek out peace and serenity for my life, which at the time was chaotic and filled with whirlwinds. Before I found this book in the book store on the clearance rack for a mere five dollars, I had never heard of Thomas Merton before. But, boy I am so glad that I discovered this monk and his book. This book was like a warm fuzzy blanket on a cold winters day in my life. I also found books by several other authors that I knew and loved throughout the years. Books... they effect us. When you read a book it somehow becomes part of your identity. You are what you read.

When I was a child I hated to read. Probably because I was dyslexic. I stayed back in third grade because I did not know how to read well yet. If you put me in a book store as a kid, I probably would have cried a tantrum kind of cry and panicked as if I were about to be killed. But, today a book store is like a green pasture. A place where God restore my soul. Books themselves are like still waters. The place where peace and serenity meet and kiss.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul."
Psalm 23:2

Most people relate this scripture to funerals. But, the truth is, this piece of scripture is about peace and serenity. Having God lead us to a green pasture is really having God lead us to the most beautifully green meadow or garden. A place that calms our souls and brings us peaceful happiness. The still, quiet waters is a place of true serenity. A place where the deer that is panting for waters comes to drink. A place where God meets us and fills our dry and parched souls to overflowing with His living waters. All is well here. All is calm.

Books. I can't live without them. They are my green pasture, my quiet waters, my peace. Books are a tool that God uses in my life on a daily basis to help me dare to imagine that I can have a different life. Books help me remember where I came from, and help me see more clear to discover where I can only dream of going. People can't really know where they are going until they know where they have been. Books help me to find these answers. Books help me to remember who I am, who He is and who He says I am going to be. What are books to you?