“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ― Joseph Campbell

Over the years, I’ve taken those personality tests that organizations provide for their members. The goal is to help people work more effectively and in coordinated teams. As my work environments and situations have changed, I like to retake these tests. We all grow and evolve with the dynamics of the work world where we spend most of our time.  One of my strengths that stays consistent is a talent for accumulating information – in many forms. One for me is books. Over the past thirty years I have put together two libraries – one at home and one at my office. Both for different purposes.

I’ve recently been pushed into a new chapter of life. In the context of a series of tremendous changes in my life during the past five years. When is this roller coaster ride going to end? Right now, the big changes I face are leaving work and selling my house. These have been my homes for thirty years.

So much help from a veterans organization! They contact me and a truck comes and picks up boxes of donations. Each week if I request it. A big part of that weekly donation has been boxes of books. My libraries are quickly disappearing.

I’ve had “book fairs” in the parking lot, giving away books to students. People who stop by my office often leave with a box of books that fit their journey. I locate books that are meant to be passed on to someone special. Colleagues have “shopped” their way through my office shelves. Students in grad school always need some additions to their emerging libraries. Some friends share the same taste in fiction. It’s a joy to pass on a whole series by a much loved author.

I feel happy and satisfied when I’ve found a new home for some of my books among friends and students. Accomplishing the larger goal of lessening the burden of possessions that must be carried off to the little “van down by the river” also brings me great relief. Bit by bit I’m getting closer to where I’m going. Wherever that might be.

But the whole activity is bittersweet.

All of my thirty years of collecting is disappearing, book after book, one box at a time. I jumped up twice this weekend to find books I know I had, but they were no longer here. I couldn’t find the answers or the memory I once had. We age and lose our thoughts. Mine are also passing out the door in cardboard boxes.

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow” – Juliet

I still have many more to give away. What do you like to read? No one in my family will touch a book. They’re trapped in digital screens. I have much you could learn from – get a degree or two even. What about some history or mystery? I think I’ve passed on most of my religion, theology and devotionals. There’s a big bookcase here in my bedroom filled with volumes I have yet to read. These I’m saving for the road ahead. Maybe there will be a tree next to that “van down by the river” where I can sit and work my way through each one.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”  ― Charles W. Eliot