Can you tell I’ve been feeling saggy lately? Go figure (says the rest of the world who are also feeling saggy.)
Last week, something happened that made it worse.
I got my husband his dream Christmas gift this year, a little Sharing Library. (It’s like a Little Free Library. Ours is from the same family but a different company, hence “Sharing Library.) It’s been up for six months, and we restock it every week or so. It had just reached the point where people were adding as many books as were taken. Yay!!
Then one morning, my husband sent me this picture while I was at my studio:
No more books :-{Yup. Someone had taken ALL of our books. (Turns out the two remaining were actually left by a neighbor’s kiddo, who saw that they were all gone and generously added two of theirs. Love love love you Nova!)
My heart went to a sad place. Who would do such a thing?? And WHY???
I checked in with NextDoor, and with a Facebook group of fellow Little Free Library members in Santa Rosa. At least two other people said this had happened to them, too. People shared their thoughts:
Was it someone with a mental health issue?
Was it someone who thought “free” meant “take ’em all!”??
Was it someone who realized they could resell them to a used bookstore???
Fortunately, I’d stockpiled some books to move on, and half-filled the library again. But it left me in a bit of a huff. As in, do something kind and look what happens! Ugh.
And then the light poured in.
Someone in the FB group offered to bring us more books. Someone else did, too. Soon we were swamped with offers of books.
One person brought theirs over immediately, and totally restocked the box. I met another person who meant to do the same, and gave me their box to store. More people did the same. Soon people from NextDoor chimed in, too.
Dozens of people offered books, brought books, left books on our porch, and left books on THEIR porch for me to pick up.
We now have enough extra books to fill up that library for months!
So one tiny act of greed/misunderstanding/poopiness resulted in hundreds of words and actions of kindness and generosity.
So what do I want to hold onto this week?
An empty giving library?
Or a little world of good deeds?
Yup. You guessed it!
If this lifts YOUR heart today, too, then I’ve done my work for the day….
Luann Udell 