These past two weeks have been... enlightening.  The first week, we celebrated the existence of libraries.  The second week we extended gratefulness to volunteers. 

Why is this enlightening?

Because the two are so very connected, it sometimes feels like the pulse in the heart of community.

Explanation: Here in our neck of the woods, our libraries act as community centers.  Mind, they do not replace actual community centers that are established in the area, but much as, say, the farmer's market or grocery store is a place where you will be guaranteed to run into someone you know, thus is the library.

Often reiterated is the importance of a library as a center of information and learning, but it is also a place where you can be loud and quiet at the same time; or educated and satiated at the same time.  You can see someone in the glorious golden years of their life or see a young child discovering picture books for the first time.  It is like a garden growing, an ecosystem, a vibrant functioning deep-rooted organism that is necessary for survival on this planet.  (I'm getting a little carried away, but you get my drift.)

But the patrons are the loamy delightful soil in why our doors remain open.  If not for the need for space to stretch and learn and relax and search and grow and rest and read and communicate, we wouldn't exist.  We delight in the delight of our patrons.

Yet also to feed this organism, to keep it going, people need to lovingly maintain and nurture what is there.  We have a healthy army of volunteers that regularly come to help us out: whether internally with the books and straightening or helping with crafty projects; or externally with the gardens.  And we treasure each and every one of them.  And it is worth having a week set aside nationally to celebrate them, but we also try to celebrate them every day.  Because we are interconnected, symbiotic. 

So, thus ends this lesson on enlightenment. 

:)

Thank you patrons.  Thank you volunteers.