What Do You See? A Stack of Books or a Lifetime of Stories?

Inspired by what do you see?

What do you see?

A stack of old books worn, discolored, pages slightly curled from age or damp air. Some stained with coffee rings or candle wax. Varying sizes. Varying weight.

Maybe that’s all, if you don’t look long.

But

Look harder.

Pause. Breathe. Squint if you must. Wipe the crust from your eyes and clear off those glasses…!

You might see the corners of a child’s favorite bedtime story, read until the spine cracked and the cover faded to ghost. You might see a grimoire with notes in the margin, a smudge of ash from a spell done wrong or perfectly right. A tearstain that dried before it soaked through. Wax from a blue candle. A pressed herb.

One book may have been a gift that was inscribed in loopy cursive, handed to a friend on a bad day, then carried from one broken heart to the next like a torch. A companion. A relic. A secret.

I bet one is a family recipe book. Passed from great grandma to the youngest grand daughter. The pages hold her keys to her culture and history.

A college text? A how to do it yourself? Oh I know the yellow pages phone book!

Really though these aren’t just books. They’re not junk or clutter or meaningless shelf-fillers.

They’re memory. Muscle. Magic.

Every spine has a soul behind it.

So I ask again

What do you see?

Really.

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