Bookshelf Series
By Tracy L.
I am a collector of words. I started off in junior high collecting quotes in a spiral notebook I decorated in magazine clippings. I loved sharing these quotes with others, my letters, cards, school projects, they all incorporated a quote in some way or another. As an avid reader, I have also created quite a collection of books over the years. My bookshelves include a variety of fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and in the past few years a plethora of self help or personal development titles.
All these books are full of underlined or referenced material, lines and passages that spoke to me as I read them. At the end of a book I go through and reread my notations and transfer the passages to my notebook. In a way, this book of quotes is almost like my personal diary, although the words are not mine, their meanings belong to me and tell a story.
There is something powerful about connecting with the written word. Resonating with someone else’s thoughts always gave me a sense of peace, like I was not alone, that someone else in the world knew the songs of my soul without ever meeting me. Reading became a part of my therapy, a coping and learning tool to help me through depression. These feelings and connections inspired me to create the Bookshelf Series. I hope you too find inspiration and connection with the words I share.
I am not one who normally comments on the ongoings of the world, I usually reflect on them internally while silently taking in the reactions of others. Lately however, with all the hate and violence going on it’s hard to stay quiet. I’m scared, I’m sad, I’m hopeless. I hate to admit that I feel hopeless but sometimes it’s the truth. I simply do not understand how we can have so much anger in us that we need to cause harm to others and ultimately ourselves, over and over again.