Thank you new library

 

Thank you new library

The promise of a jam donut took me to the newest and best thing on the Docklands scene last week – the new library.

The funky little cafe that sits in the foyer didn’t have jam donuts so my friend Tam settled for a warmed up cinnamon donut instead. The coffee was good, the atmosphere was relaxed, warm and friendly, and inviting enough to seem like a good spot to go and sit, read, people watch and, this is the most important thing … explore.

Plus it has that very special feel of something that has just been launched that has benefitted from the time, efforts and love of many, many people.
I think of exploration – exploration of the lives of others, environments we perhaps will never experience in person, feelings we won’t necessarily feel and people we would never come across in our daily lives. Exploration as a common theme suits Docklands and its new library.

The new library is a great place to explore all of this, plus more.

It’s also a very peaceful place. The hard wood floors, solid and foundational, give a great feel of earthiness to the place, while the sense of light is all pervasive, never glary and harsh but permeating the entire building with a warmth you can feel. (The heating keeps it toasty warm as well!)

Having joined the library, I even went so far as to borrow a book. I say went so far because I go through stages where I convince myself that reading is not for me. I’m too busy, I’m too tired, I can’t find a good book, the last book I read didn’t really grab me …

Having been through these cycles before I have always, always gone back to books.

The book I chose started out slow, as they often do with me. It always takes me a while to warm to a book and its the characters. To care enough about them, I want to go back and revisit the landscape they live in.

It took a while, but now I’m totally into it. I look forward to my book time, which is shared with my 11-year-old son’s book time, and so it fulfils the purpose of modelling a behaviour I would like him to follow. So it really is totally brilliant.

Thank you new library.

I have a little meditation app on my phone and there is a meditation on it called “Thanks”. Buddhism is very much about gratitude – being aware of, seeing, hearing and feeling the things in our lives – whether they be material or non-material – that enrich and support us.

So in my meditation perhaps it would be good to say thanks for the new library and for all the people who made it possible. The builders, the architects, the town planners, the gardeners, the staff, and everyone else who made it possible for me to sit down at 7pm of a week night and read with my son.

Until next time.
Maria x

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