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.

So, What Do You Do With Old Churches...?

 We'd seen the building before, but it wasn't until last summer that I took a second look. When driving by, you see that it's another aging building, and by driving by slower, you can tell it's an old church. However, if you turn off the road and check out the south side of the building, you'll notice something not found in many buildings...

Huge holes in the side of the building.

And parked in those holes is farm equipment.

The building, once used as a church, is now a garage.

I think many of us have a thing for old buildings, especially old churches. My childhood church was over 100 years old when we moved into town (and that was more than 50 year ago...). Sure, it had been upgraded and remodeled time and time again. Today, it's still in use. Sure, it has its quirks, but I love that building. When we moved we were fortunate enough to be assigned to another old church--not quite as old (only 100 years old...), but old. I love that church, too.

This church-converted-to-barn building is interesting. I wonder, when it was abandoned, did anyone want it? I know several churches have been purchased and converted as meeting houses for other denominations, and even a few have been turned into private residences--usually with mixed results.

In many ways, I'd love to live in an old church, especially the ones in Utah. Most LDS churches have kitchens and basketball courts. That would be fun. What wouldn't be fun is the conversion of a church into a home. Imagine just trying to keep out mice in a structure that big--best to get a couple of cats.

I suppose no one wanted to live in this church, no other religions wanted it so it eventually became a sanctuary for birds, other small animals, and farm equipment. Even so, I'm glad it's still around.