Give Thanks...A Well-Stocked Wall

 I stood in a friends home office recently and admired his wall. The wall contained no painting, or photograph, or, heaven-forbid, a flat-screen TV. No, his wall contained books...best-sellers, scriptures, works of fiction, motivational books, financial books, classics.

A well-stocked wall.

I have a home office. I have a bookshelf. Actually, it's more like basic shelving that contains books. Most of the books in my office are personal journals...over seventy.

But my office wall isn't what I saw earlier. Scanning his titles I realized, the wall of books tells me so much about the man who assembled them. From the selections I know what he deems important, what he considers art, what aspects of his life he feels need improving, what he enjoys reading for fun. It's a map, a guide to a personality...to a soul.

I noticed several rare editions, but a majority of the works can be found in your local bookstore, or even second-hand or thrift store. Point is, for relatively little money (especially compared to the amount of knowledge contained therein...), you can create a well-stocked wall for yourself. Be patient, take your time, a book here, a classic there, books to improve yourself, books for fun. In time, your wall will become more just a collection of works. It will transform into a resource, a reference, a sanctuary. 

I'm thankful we live in a society that allows us to gather and keep books. Some societies don't. I'm thankful I was able to check out his collection. I'm thankful for his friendship and his library helped create the man he is today. I'm thankful for well-stocked walls wherever they may be.