How I Became A Library Disciple

Is there a library at the end of this path?

I was in the market for a mentor, a wise figure to follow, a teacher.
Thanks to the Internet, and the publishing industry there are literally hundreds to choose from...
But where to start?  There is so much wisdom out there, it was making my head spin and I wasn’t getting any wiser.  
I read books, blogs, newsletters, websites and magazines.  I listened to podcasts, movies and radio shows.  
It was way too much information.
I needed a clear and narrow focus.  A path.  Some direction.

After bouncing from one sage to the next I was feeling worse than when I started.
One evening I was reading a book by Marcus Buckingham called “Go, Put Your Strengths To Work”.  I was all for it, except I couldn’t figure out what my strength was.  I read on and he suggested asking yourself, “which activity will fulfill and sustain you as you go through life?”  What has an “I-can’t-help-but quality” to it, what felt easy, made time speed by and made you happy?  And the final three clues...

• what did you love to do as a kid?
• what would keep doing even if no one noticed and no one paid you?
• what are you goood at?

Aha!  I got it, my strengths was going to the library and reading.

Before I could second guess myself a plan snapped into place...instead of clicking aimlessly through the Internet wilderness,  searching for endless for direction and I’d go to the library everyday and see what happened. I’d go to a different library, in a different place everyday.  For a whole year.  
Going to the library everyday would definitely make me happy, reading and learning were two things I was really good at, and besides, even if I wanted to stop going to the library, I couldn’t help myself.  So maybe the library could be my mentor.

After a few months I  realized that I was learning more  from the library than history, architecture and library science, I was taking away some life lessons (or ‘big ideas’ as we say in my 4th grade classroom).  Each library had a nugget of greater truth that I could take with me back into the real world and try to apply to my life.  
So I decided that each day I would write about the library and the lesson if offered.

I was a library disciple on a virtual pilgrimage around the country - picking up inspiration from every stop.  

All was going well until I started to notice, again, that information was coming in too quickly, a lesson a day was too much for me to digest.  I took a page from the bible, and most of the other organized religions of the world and picked Sunday as a day to stop and reflect on the week, remember what I had learned and look for ways to practice the lessons more in my daily life.  So here I am..

What I learned from the library this week:

• relax.  life is too short to always be racing around like a chicken with your head cut off.  Find a quiet place where you can let your body relax and decompress.  A place to calm down physically and  stay alert mentally.  Triggering the relaxation response is good for your mind, body and spirit.  Try meditating, talking a walk, doing yoga, sitting in your garden, floating in a pool or come join me at the library.

• start listening to the people around you.  Put down your phone, look up from the email, magazine, bills and television and give your attention to the person you’re talking to.  Show them that you care and respect them by really listening to them, trying to understand what they are saying and where they are coming from.  Start small and build your listening stamina, soon you will be honestly communicating with others, not just going through the motions.  Don’t know how to start?  Join a book club.

• smile.  You’ll feel better, look better, live longer and be more fun to be around.  Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us to “smile, breathe and go slowly” and he says, “because of your smile you make life beautiful.”  Put on your smile when you leave your house in the morning and keep it on.  You will spread good feelings to everyone you meet and be more grateful for all the simple pleasures.  ps. you don’t have to feel happy to start smiling.  Just fake it and you might even fool yourself.

A Dress is Worth a Thousand Words

photo from WSFA 12 News

Reasons to smile were few and far between in Madison County, Alabama last month.  Hundreds of homes were destroyed by Tornadoes that ripped through the small town and levelled everything in their path.  The 3,000 residents of Harvest, located on the border of Tennessee, were devastated by the violent storms that wiped out neighborhoods and killed seven people.

The Crosswinds Baptist Church quickly began accepted and handing out donations of food, water and necessary supplies to residents that were left with nothing but the clothes on their  backs.  But in the middle of the chaotic aftermath, elementary school teacher Kristen Tate started thinking about the prom.  Then she headed to the  Sparkman High School Library.  

Within a week Tate, and a team of volunteers, converted the library into a full scale prom boutique.  Kristen’s mother, Jackie Tate explained, "It started off with just a handful of dresses, and now we have about 3,000 dresses that we are placing in these girl's hands."  Dresses of all shapes, sizes and colors were donated and girls were invited to step through the doors of the library, escape the ugly reality of their town and get ready for the prom.   As the teenagers stood in front of the mirrors and smiled, the volunteers knew they had done the right thing.  Trang Do, the author of the article at WAFF wrote, “seeing a girl smile after losing so much was what the drive was all about.”  Jackie Tate agreed, “seeing the girls faces made it all worthwhile.”

Smiling is powerful.  
Who would think a simple muscle twitch could bring on so many benefits?   
Mark Stibich is a behavioral change expert who helps people make changes to their habits in order to achieve success and get healthy.  He explains some of the reasons we should smile more often (and help the people around us smile too):

• smiling makes you look younger and more attractive (without surgery).
• smiling makes people feel good, suddenly everyone wants to be your friend.
• smiling boosts your mood and can trick your body into feeling better
• smiling reduces stress (so smiling at the library must be extra good for you)
• smiling increases the effectiveness of your immune system, maybe because you are more relaxed.
• smiling lowers your blood pressure even if you haven’t given up salt.
• smiling is a free drug, one that increases serotonin and endorphins.
• smiling makes you look more confident, people will respond to you differently.
• smiling keeps you out of the dark side.  Stibich writes, “when we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that “Life is Good!”  Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.

I’m sure that the Sparkman High School library has been helping their students learn all along but last week the lesson was invaluable...a single smile is worth more than a thousand words in any book.  Kristen Tate taught Madison County that smiling helps, even after a tornado, but it can help us too.  Just give it a try.  :)