The season is changing here in Evanston; orange leaves fluttering to the ground, darkness coming earlier and earlier, and cooler temperatures in the forecast. I’m all ready – I’ve got my cozy couch, my secret stash of snacks, and my ever-present stack of books.

Okay – so my ‘secret stash’ of snacks isn’t really secret because I’m the only one here. But when I was a girl, my Grandma had a secret stash of cookies and soda in a bedroom closet, and I was in on the secret. So now, I think of it as carrying on family tradition, you know? My crunchy bites, chocolate nibbles, and fruit-punch juice-box horde are officially the secret stash.

Enough with the silly, let’s get serious. Here it is: If you don’t have a library card, you need one right now.

One would think that since I love reading so much that I’d have already earned my library hermit badge decades ago. Only somehow I’ve always had an inexhaustible pile of books in my house, from here and there. So I just never rolled into the library. Well, one of my neighbors is always ‘off to the library’. And I actually began to feel a little embarrassed of myself. “Yea, I LOVE books…but I haven’t seen the inside of a public library since High School.” Looking away bashfully and blushing.
So, I dragged myself up my library steps a few months ago on a mission to get my library card. If I at least had that library card then I could call myself a proper…I don’t know…bookworm. I just needed the card.

But then I had what one can only call a religious literary experience. I never left the library. Nope. I’ve been living in the library for two months now…

I wish! My word, how I LOVE THAT LIBRARY! I now sprint up the library steps just to longingly peruse the isles, read back covers, and hide from the chaos by disappearing into the nebulous depths of the stacks. I’m reading books as fast as I can, but I’m no speed reader. Which means I can’t read ALL-THE-BOOKS-ALL-AT-ONCE. Because if I could pick a super-human power, it would probably be that.

I guess it’s just the access to so much knowledge. And it feels so real, beautiful, and precious in ways that are hard to describe. So many words, histories, stories, thoughts, feelings, experiences, data, research, LIFE, at my fingertips. And then there are all the incredible ways that libraries are caring for our communities (go to your local library website and check it out). Libraries are truly beacons of light. I only wish that I had lifted them up sooner.

Most of you were already way ahead of me. I know. You’ve had your library card forever and ever. Blush. But for those of you who haven’t discovered the library yet, just know that treasure awaits you. Not just in books. But in community too.

Lift your library. Read books. Stay Inspired.