Reading has always been a favorite hobby . My love for reading started as a child when I would go to Carondelet Library in St. Louis. For some reason, I always ended up checking out a pink book that had a boy and a girl on the cover. At the time I couldn’t read, but the pictures on the cover and the idea of reading is what created my interest in reading. As time went on, I checked out harder level of books and became a fluent reader. I started to read autobiographies and other non-fiction. The library was one of my favorite places to go. It brought quiet and calm. In the summer, the library would have summer reading programs. At the time, there were no rewards other than a chart and having your name displayed on the wall at the library. It became a goal of mine to read as many books as I could for that personal reward.
Nowadays, I love to visit our local library in addition to our bookstore in town called Neighborhood Reads. Our library is a lovely facility and I enjoy the programs they have such as reading with dogs, the summer library program for our boys, and bringing in exhibits. Our son Drew liked the mail exhibit which told the story of military mail from the American Revolution to the present day. Neighborhood Reads reminds me of the quaint bookstore in the movie You Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Neighborhood Reads brings a love of reading into our community. It also reminds me of the times I would go to B. Dalton bookstore and pick out the latest Babysitter Club book or Family Circus comic book. I love to support local businesses.
At Neighborhood Reads, they offer many events such as lettering classes and book clubs. One of my favorite things to do is to read at storytime periodically. The kids are so sweet and it allows me to give back to the community that I love. This fall at storytime, it was such a sweet group of kids who shared a love for reading. Last fall, our family adopted a shelf at Neighborhood Reads and it brought joy to share with others the authors and genres we liked to read. The boys listed which books they wanted on the shelf along with Matt and I’s suggested books. There were a variety of books on the shelf we adopted: holiday books, inspirational, chapter books, and books about hobbies.
Reading us to connect with others through their writing. Currently, I am reading Sally Fields new autobiography and Mr. Roger’s biography. When reading, I am always going back and forth between books, highlighting important parts. Most of the time, when I finish reading books, I donate them to our local Little Free Libraries in Washington. The Little Free Libraries have books people donate. They are located at parks in our town and at the train station. The purpose is to give a book and take a book. When I take the boys to the park, we take some books to read from the Little Library. Sometimes we read at the park, while at other times we take them home.
Some weeks back, Drew had tennis lessons at a park. Luke and I did some errands and came back to wait for Drew while he finished his lessons. While waiting, we checked out the books from the Little Library. The one book that I came across was entitled Beautiful Hope. It has stories from a variety of authors that talk about the importance of hope. It was about a month ago when I took the book home. It was a difficult time as the anniversary of losing Hope was approaching. It seemed like it was meant to be to find that book at the park. The title seemed fitting in so many ways.
In the evenings, I get out Beautiful Hope and read a snippet. I reflect on the beautiful things that bring me hope: family, friends, the sunrise, nature, our community, humor, the sunset, memories and the beauty of each day. May we all find beautiful hope everyday.
“The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been and all the memories we’ve made along the way” Unknown
