Kneeling

I kneel a lot these days at work. The picture books (Easy Fiction) are my assigned area to shelve. On any given day I shelve two to four full book trucks of picture books -- hundreds -- in and around my other duties. And it involves a lot of kneeling, as the shelves that hold the books are low for the young children the books are intended. Often you can spot my head bobbing in the children's area as I walk on my 51-yr.-old knees, from one range to the next, while pushing along a stack of books, which are laying flat on the top of the shelves, with my raised arm. It is the very task with which I began my career in libraries, as a shelver while in high school. As I handle the books I remember my first experience in a public library as a very young child. My Aunt Judy, an elementary school principal in south Florida, took me to the Coconut Grove library and let me pick out two picture books. I was awed by the huge selection of colorful stories from which I was allowed to choose. I was entranced by books from the start. And I still am. They have opened up a world of ideas --- real and imagined -- to me and so many others. So I am honored to daily stock the low shelves of picture books for the children who come to the library. I am humbled by the richness that books and libraries have brought to my life. I am grateful to be part of the continuum of providing others with library materials -- to be a librarian. My vocation has provided me with a rich inner life, a comfortable lifestyle, and the opportunity to continue to grow and learn as I age. As I kneel to re-stock the shelves with returned picture books, I also kneel in appreciation and respect for all that books and libraries have meant to me and others.