Library Happenings - March 2021

Happy March, readers!

 

I have to admit that I suffer a bit of PTSD when I think back to March of 2020. I’m sure I’m not alone. Looking back to my calendar one year ago, I can see I was blithely rolling along at 100 mph, and so was the library. Meetings! Programs! Special Events! Committees! Planning! And then…BAM! Closed for several months, trying to do the next right thing to provide you with library services while keeping you safe.

 

A book that is resonating with me lately is Katherine May’s Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. May says that:

 

"There are gaps in the mesh of the everyday world, and sometimes they open up and you fall through them into somewhere else. Somewhere Else runs at a different pace to the here and now, where everyone else carries on. Somewhere Else is where ghosts live, concealed from view and only glimpsed by people in the real world. Somewhere Else exists at a delay, so that you can't quite keep pace. Perhaps I was already teetering on the brink of Somewhere Else anyway; but now I fell through, as simply and discreetly as dust sifting between the floorboards. I was surprised to find that I felt at home there. Winter had begun."

 

What a powerful image. May uses the same word over and over to refer to this kind of season (and life event): ”liminal.” I admit I had to look it up. It means “relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process,” or “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” Isn’t that what we’ve all been doing? We have all been Somewhere Else, in a year that was all Winter.

 

In this reflective mood, I do see the signs of Spring. Not just in the lengthening days and nature’s signals, but in a new and fresh approach to library services. Yes, we are OPEN for you to use the library in traditional ways, but we see the importance of new services that grew out of necessity. Authors can join us from far away, now that they can Zoom in and not travel. Technology training is so much better suited for online classes instead of an auditorium. Our staff teetered, and then pivoted, and I could not be prouder of their resilience.

 

Sherie Brown, Director

 

P.S. - My hubby was out of town for a week. I read three books, ate junk food for dinner, crawled into bed at 7 p.m. to watch mindless TV (OK, Bridgerton!)…and regret nothing! But making the week an intellectual win was finally reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, the best historical fiction I’ve read in years! Even if you think you aren’t interested in Shakespeare (never named in the book) or Renaissance England, and definitely think something about the loss of a child in a pandemic is not for you…this book IS for you. . Gorgeously written, transporting, and hopeful. Let me know what you think!

 

 

 

Download the entire March newsletter.