Serendipity strikes at the library

Took the whole family over to the big island today. Dropped the little ones and Daddy off at Gran-Gran and Grampy's and headed over to the printer to double check the pantone and sign-off the bluelines on the latest newsletter project--then--motored down to the library to spend the whole day researching, reading, and writing for a variety of projects. For me, this is like going to the candy store...anticipation, planning, with all day in front of me to just wallow in knowledge and learning--bliss. And it has been more than two years since I have been able to do this...

So...(do you hear the tip-tapping of Murphy's little feet sneaking up behind me?)...I have about eight different writers I want to look for something--anything--by. I sit down at the incredibly slooooooow online catalogue and start looking stuff up. Checked out. Lost. Missing. Locked for transit. Port Hardy. On the shelving cart--back on Gabriola--Argggh! Not one--I'm serious here--not one book is available.

Okay, I take a deep breath, I can handle this...I'm good (and very experienced) at doing serendipity in the library. Books have always been one of Spirit's favourite ways of dropping in and saying hi to me. So I start browsing...and decide to start at 0 in the dewey decimal side of things...

Cool, look a book on XML. I could use that...pick it up, check it out...and what catches my eye nary but a shelf away??? Two big fat hardcover copies--not one, mind you, but TWO--of T.C. McLuhan's, The Way of the Earth: Encounters with Nature in Ancient and Contemporary Thought. Ah now, you may not immediately see the significance of this, but this is a book that my dear buddy Chris Corrigan is currently reading and had recommended to me. I guess I just got a cosmic nudge to reorder my reading list :).

And wait...it's not over yet...just as I get this in my hands...the power goes off. All the power. I mean...how may hints does a grrl need? The Harbourfront branch has awesome natural light and we're all civilized bookish types, so we settle down, get comfy and start reading our current finds. I figure, this is the library...they'll have it back up in no time...I'll just wait, the power will come back on and I can keep researching periodicals at least...besides--I paid for 4 hours of parking.

Thirty minutes later, the librarian has to ask us to leave, because the emergency power is running out and they won't be able to work anymore. The power has never been off that long before. So we all check our books out manually and I head over to Perkins for a cuppa and manage to draft out my workshop. I even got a chance to crack open The Way of the Earth and fell into rapture...

The task at hand is to re-ignite that spark of holiness that is associated with all of human life and which may contribute to the refinement of the heart. It behooves us to become more attentive to the potential of spiritual and cultural alchemy in the retrieval of what has always been ours--the living experience of the ultimate unity of the human spirit, the biosphere and the cosmos.

Yummy. I'm gonna love this book...
Thanks Spirit! Thanks Chris!