Thankful

It's been an up and down sort of time here in czukland. The personal interactions and relationships are all doing fine, thank you. It's the other things, the noisy confusion of life that have me muttering the lines from Desiderata* like a mantra. (Sidenote: amazing how something I loved as a preteen has managed to follow me through life, and still fit like a comfy sweater.) To mix my allusions, I'm giving that sorting hat a workout as I figure out which things to accept, which to change, and hope for that all important wisdom to know the difference.**

And yesterday, in the midst of so many things pushing hard trying to overshadow that which I treasure, it was the hearts of my friends that reached out and reminded me "with all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world."*  I am blessed with friends, and they help me keep peace with my soul, regularly, with a smile, a word, a memory. Thank you all, near and far. You are loved dearly, by one small bookczuk.


* Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952; Full text here.

**Reinhold Niebuhr, American Theologian. Full quote "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Addendum: 
This came in yesterday's mail, out of the blue. A good friend I met through BookCrossing died almost three years ago. Another friend and I worked to make a memorial bookplate for BookCrossers to use-- our way of keeping his spirit present and honoring him. She and I share a love of whimsical art (and art in general), owls, books, and many other aspects of life. We also share a name. So it was fitting that we shared the creation of a bookplate. For this hoody, she has the owls we each created wing in wing: same thing, only different, but friends for life. Thank you, Other Amy. This, like your own spedbuggery self, means the world to me.