King's Daughter's Kitchen

The library is one of my quiet little sanctuaries. All the desk people call me by my first name when we greet each other because I go so often and make it a point to speak to them when I’m there. I can choose a book, set my phone timer in one of their silent study rooms, my room of requirement, in the back of the library, put in my Loops ear plugs, and go to another world in someone else’s life in a book for an hour without being disturbed before the beep tells me it’s time to give up my solitude to another patron.

Sometimes in the library study room, I have my checked-out book, but I’m not reading. I sit a little while in the almost silence first and listen to my heartbeat. I thank God for the short but peaceful time away from my real life. I pray here often because I have a bad habit of falling asleep in the middle of it all when I’m at home, and praying and driving and crying or praising don’t go together. The stops and starts and Jerks interrupt our important heaven and earth conversation.

When my time is up, I pull out my Loops and silence my alarm. Right away, I can hear the exercise class working away on the second floor and through the walls, the rhythm of the drum lady working with her students. I’m tired after, a good relaxed, peaceful, happy kind of tired that feels the same as I feel after great worship, or a tough, focused, sweaty session of physical therapy in which I gave it all my strength. My mind is clear, and my emotional bucket is refilled, so I have peace, patience, and joy to spare for others again.