Back in the Night Drop

Since I’ve become an official library freak, I get very excited when hear or read about library references.  Last night. I was finishing up Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Bean Trees, and, on the second to last page, I read this wonderful library analogy:

“But nothing on this earth’s guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know?  I’ve been thinking about that.  About how your kids aren’t really yours, they’re just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you’ll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece.  What I mean is, everything you ever get is really just on loan.

“Sure,” I said.  “Like library books.  Sooner or later they’ve all got to go back into the night drop.”

“Exactly.  You’d just as well enjoy it while you’ve got it.”  The Bean Trees pg. 310, Barabara Kingsolver

First of all, I love the ‘one line big idea wrap up’ for a book, very tidy and helpful for those of us who are practical readers.  Second, in the modern age of ebooks and kindles, I love the old fashioned night drop reference, very nostalgic.  But mostly I like thinking about life as a library book,  something on borrowed time that you can’t hold onto forever.  You can use it and enjoy it for a little while, but when your time’s up, someone else gets a turn.

But if everything is on loan how come it is so easy to take everything for granted?
It is so easy to think that our borrowed books belong to us forever, that they will never get old and faded, left behind or spilled on.  We imagine that life is an ebook, preserved in its sleek ereader case, forever young, smooth and pristine.  It’s not.

So how can we remember that our days are only borrowed?
What’s the secret to enjoying life while you’ve got it, not squandering it until it’s due back in the night drop?

• Use affirmations to stay focused on what you have. You can shop for an affirmation that’s a good fit, I like “My possibilities are endless” or “I am successful in everything I do”.  Affirmation help you focus on the positive and  no matter what you pick it will make you feel better than “I hate Monday” or “this job sucks”.
• Wake up in the morning and remember to be thankful that you’re alive and can get up.
• Hug someone; even hugging the cat will make you feel better.
• Do something you enjoy everyday (anything counts).
• Smile or laugh if possible (youtube makes this easy).

Enjoy your book while you have it, stay up late and read it, discuss it, write about it, think about it, love it.  Squeeze everything out of it and you’ll feel satisfied when you let it go in the night drop.