Miles of Books, and I'd Take on the Whole Journey

One morning I got out of work, and strangely enough, I didn't feel tired. Nevermind the fact that I had just worked a 12-hour night shift in the busiest unit of the hospital, and it was a particularly busy night with codes and direct O.R. admissions happening simultaneously. That was all behind me as i walked outside and took in the morning sun and cool wintry breeze. I looked forward to where i was going next. I was on my way to Strand Bookstore in Union Square! The excitement gave me a second wind of consciousness, and away went the fatigue that had accumulated the night before.

I went into Strand with just one item in mind: a Moleskine 2010 weekly planner. This is the really nice planner i was referring to in my last entry that my friend Candee also has. The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin. I finally had the time to go get one for myself! I've always had planners of various types in a perpetually haphazard attempt to organize my life, because it somehow manages to get out of my control, but i never found one good enough to do the job. Hence the wonderful mess that i have now, growing spontaneously also known as My Life. So imagine my excitement and determination to get this awesome datebook to end all datebooks, with the radical idea that my life could possibly and finally have some organization to it! I walked in that bookstore... eyes widened in sudden intrigue... and i knew... i knew i wasn't going to just get that one item and leave just like that. The bookstore aptly quips itself as, "Strand: 18 Miles of Books", and i was ready to take on the whole journey.

I wasn't exactly sure where i'd find the Moleskine planners, and i didn't bother to ask for help. I was happy winding, weaving and hovering over books, finding my own way. I lost myself in complete content, and with that, i lost the sense of time. I was off that day and had no time-constrained plans, so i was a kid in canyland. Or better yet, i was like Belle in "Disney's Beauty in the Beast", practically living off books! Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, and founder of the Wu-Tang Clan The RZA-- some of my favorite writers.

I opened up a small pink book, "Love Poems" by Pablo Neruda, and found "The Queen" under my fingers.


I'd like to share this poem's timelessness:

"I have named you queen.
There are taller ones than you, taller.
There are purer ones than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass,
the nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it."

*Heart melts!*

I didn't buy that book though. I was intrigued by The RZA's latest book, "The Tao of WU". I'm a student of Life, and i love learning new insights to broaden & deepen my own perspective on it, and the RZA has much to teach. His lessons are inspiring, including his references to Kung-Fu flicks and comic book heroes symbolizing Faith. I suggest everyone give him a chance. I read a few pages there in the bookstore, and I already felt at peace. So i bought it to bring home and read with my bf =)

"Studying lessons and reading great religious books is an excellent form of prayer. But whichever you choose, don't pray to have something pop up under your Christmas tree. Don't pray for a thing. Pray to put yourself in harmony with God. Do that and your prayers will be answered." --the RZA

I proceeded on to the next tables to indulge some more, slowly collecting enough literature to add up to at least $50 (so i could get a free Strand tote bag!)... Then finally i came upon the Moleskine planners. I was so happy. I got it in black. ♥

~ Peace ~