11 January, 2011

~ On Receiving a Parcel of Books ~

Do you know how it is to have chosen, with excruciating care, the next additions to your library, and to have waited for their delivery with the excitement of a child?

Do you know how it is to find a card in your mailbox advising you a parcel has arrived?

Do you know how it is to present the card at the counter and have the clerk heft a sturdy box into your expectant arms?

Do you know how it is to cradle the box with infinite tenderness, transporting it from the Post Office to the truck, from the truck to the kitchen, from the kitchen to the blessed sanctuary of the library?

Do you know how it is to catch your breath as you open the flaps, and gasp as light falls upon the covers and dustjackets cloaking the volumes within?

Do you know how it is to lift six books to your face in turn, smelling their heady perfume of paper and ink?

Do you know how it is to sit with these new books, stroking their spines with your thumb and tracing their embossed titles with your forefinger?

Do you know how it is to open each book - no more than 90ยบ, their backs are delicate - and let the pages fall gently over one another?

Do you know how it is to close your eyes as the cool whisperbreath of inkwords kisses your face?

Do you know?

.:sigh:.

It is bliss.



Peace ~