FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER

 

I know there is evil and ugliness in this world…I’ve witnessed it since childhood…but that’s all the more reason as we go through life to look for the beauty and the good.

I have to believe when this world was created….with love and to love was they way the creators designed it…and behind the counter of a bookstore…there’s no better place to find it.

Behind the counter of a bookstore…I see love in all its forms…which strengthens my resolve and hope that we can weather evil’s storms.

Behind the counter of a bookstore I’m privileged to see love with my two old tired eyes…I see it in the rainbow of people who enter…every sex, shape, color…and size.

I see it in young families…a love both innocent and grand…I see it in the parent’s and their children’s eyes as they search for books while holding hands.

I see it in older families too…in adult children and their parent’s smiles…and it’s nice to know that holding hands will never go out of style.

I see it in strangers meeting momentarily…becoming friends…as strangers often do

while talking about their books…while sharing a story or two.

And I see it in people holding the door for other people whom I’m pretty sure they’ve never met…sharing a tiny form of love I hope neither will forget.

For is that not the best way to defeat evil…to make sure its finally gone…by taking any love we receive and, with kindness,…passing it on?

From my vantage point behind the counter…

watching people come and go…

Love is perhaps the reason I love the bookstore so…

Because when we’re open…from behind the counter…

I can feel the love that’s floating in the air

and when we’re closed and the store is empty…

I can feel the echoes of the love residing there.