Book Shop Dreams

 

Once upon a time I dreamed there would be an independent book shop in town. It was a dream that spanned many years, and it never came. Through college and beyond, I waited patiently for 10+ years. It never came. 

Until now!

A few days after Pressed opened, I had to drop in one evening to browse for the first time in a little independent book shop in my town, a few minutes away from my home. My heart soared at the prospect. Ideas flashed through my head of meeting here with friends and family. Of having a little bookclub here. Of getting a coffee and sitting down to read a new book.

It looks small, you say. Sure, the shelves are not full and the selection is limited, but it is a book shop! It is a celebration of all things bookish! It promotes reading! Open the door and the scent of coffee and books greets you with all the possibility of cosiness, which is the best thing in my opinion. Browse the different sections and delight in that. There is plenty of seating - tables and chairs, sofas, etc.

This is a massive accomplishment for the bookish. I have fiercely advocated for a book shop here, in my quiet and patient way of telling friends and acquaintances, whilst at the the same time harboring a dream of having my own book shop one day (only in my dreams, really), all the while holding onto the hope that one day this city would reach a level of bookishness that adhered to the guidelines of requirement to open an independent book shop. 

Here we are, rendering the requirements met, and I hope that it sticks around with great success, filling up these shelves with more books as more people realize the joy of reading. Maybe they will even have to add more shelves for more books!  

I am just so glad you are here, Pressed!

Cultivate Self-Learning

 Cultivate self-learning. 

When I first started reading Dante's Divine Comedy many years ago (10+ years), I had no real knowledge of what it was about (other than the basic journey through hell, purgatory, and into paradise), and much of it went over my head. I had purchased a used copy of all three books in one in a used bookshop in Providence, Rhode Island on a visit there after college. I knew it was a book I should read at some point, so I read it. It sat there in my heart lingering with images and questions. Then a year or two ago I picked it up again to start to re-read all of Dante's Divine Comedy. This time I read Dorothy L. Sayers's translation and I listened to talks about it and read books on Dante along the way. My understanding and depth of reading since those years after college reached a deep appreciation and I caught more references, but still miss so many. 

And yet...the more I read the more I saw how reading this text from the 1300's connected with my life in a myriad of ways everywhere I turned. Dante showed up in the other books I read, he was discussed by my favourite writers, and his Divine Comedy was creeping into the tight spaces between lines of stories I had never seen before.

It is true that one book leads to another. This happens to me constantly. It is a thing of beauty I could never set-up myself.

Ask the deep questions and then read to find out more. Watch talks/lectures, listen and hear ideas. Ponder and keep reading. Let your own discovering guide you. God is there too, and soon you realize what you hear along the way is reflections of His own voice through echoes of others in their study and writing. A deeper truth is being portrayed. 

Be patient with it. Reflect and let the truth indicate itself.

Read the books that challenge you. They are usually older, more nuanced, more detailed (sometimes they feel like a paradox I know), and they are worked out with intelligence, heart, and grace. If something offered is as simple as a 1, 2, 3 step procedure, be skeptical. 

Do not expect an immediate answer. Sit with the questions and then live them. 

Look for the wisdom and the context in which the words are being written or spoken. You will find more answers as you go along in your self-study than you even knew you were asking about. That is the marvel of reading.

Choose to See Beauty

 

Choose to see beauty.

It is as simple as noticing the morning's slanted light streaming into your eastern window. The range of tones shift by the minute as the sun rises. It is a beauty we get every single day. Even amidst clouds. Sometimes it is even more beautiful with light reflecting off and through the clouds.

All it takes is your attention. Seems like a very easy thing, yet it is not. These days our attention is extremely valuable and it is being sought by much louder things of the world. And it is distracting and difficult to escape. Our attention means money for companies. Our attention is for sale. Meanwhile, the quiet beauty does slowly and patiently what it was made to do.

Often the most beautiful things take time and require patience of us. But that need crisscrosses with the mentality we possess that we need it now. We want to buy or see that thing immediately. We want an instant friend without any depth. These things buy our happiness for a short period and then we grow bored or ready to cast it aside and do it all again. Unwilling we are to let something come in its time. 

When we allow ourselves to sit quiet. Just sit there and muse. Or don't muse. Let your voice quiet down. Let the noise of the world fall to the background. The voices of others telling you what you should be and what you should do. Let God speak into the quiet spaces. God gives us our gifts and direction, but we need to listen to hear it above the voices that shout for us to follow. Instead of following the crowd, it takes much more effort to listen to what God is directing and to follow Him.