After months of work researching and writing, I have a pause right now with my manuscript, waiting for feedback from my editor.
One of the things that is most restful and renewing for me is reading. Stories nourish me.
I notice how the stories I read for pleasure have emerging themes that tie them together; they offer wisdom and connections to my writing about creative practice.
What you are looking for is in the library is a delightful book of short stories set in Tokyo and translated from the original text written in Japanese. The characters’ lives weave together, and all visit the same library in a neighborhood community center. The librarian sits behind the reference desk. When a patron approaches, she always asks the same question, “What are you looking for?”
While sitting at the desk, the librarian works with wool felt, forming small objects by shaping the felt with a needle. At the end of each conversation, she hands the person a list of suggested books as well as a small, felted bonus gift.
The librarian in the story seems almost like a fortune-teller, or a wise mystic, each encounter leads to significant realizations and improvements in the visitor’s life. The books she recommends answer the questions the person asked as well as offering timely inspiration they didn’t even know they were seeking.
The felted bonus gifts become talismans of meaning too. My favorite part is the librarian’s response to being asked how she chooses the gifts.
If my choice happened to strike a chord with you, I’m delighted to hear it… But you have to understand that even if I have some inkling about a person, I don’t tell them anything. People find meaning in the bonus gift for themselves. It’s the same with books. Readers make their own personal connections to words, irrespective of the writer’s intentions, and each reader gains something unique.”
-Michiko Aoyama (in the voice of her character Mrs. Komachi, the librarian)
The story has me thinking about ways we search for and find meaning: through research, through experiences, and through the guidance of wise people like the librarian. The librarian’s quote is also a reminder that we make meaning. We imbue objects, gifts, conversations, interactions, texts, music, art, and places with meaning. These meanings are personal and specific to each person. Making meaning is a creative act.
A second book, The Place of Tides, reminds me how we what we notice and observe also contributes to the meaning and understanding we have about the world around us.
The Place of Tides is the story of Anna, a duck caretaker on the outer Norwegian islands. She carries on a tradition that has been part of her family for generations, building structures to protect the eider ducks during their nesting season and collecting the eiderdown left behind in nests once the ducks return to the sea. I am grateful to
for recommending this book in his newsletter.The book is written by James Rebanks, a writer who met Anna years earlier and happens to ask to visit and learn from her just before what she has decided will be her last summer tending ducks.
This book reminded me how care and attention are part of creativity. It is Anna’s careful observation of the ducks each year that has allowed her to build trust with them so they will nest on the island she tends. Years of building nests and observing ducks helps her nurture these wild creatures. The work is highly dependent on the cycles of nature. Preparing the nesting structures depends on many factors including the weather and tides. When the ducks first begin to come ashore the humans tending them stay inside so as not to scare them away while they get settled.
We do not think of watching the world around us as work. Work is usually muscular and rushed at - but that was a misplaced way of thinking on the island. Even on the busiest days of the season that followed, there were always quiet hours when Anna simply watched. She drew no distinction between looking out the window and physically doing jobs - they were one and the same.
-James Rebanks
I really appreciated Rebanks storytelling and reflection, particularly the way he shifted from seeing Anna as strong and fiercely independent to realizing she was independent in her opinions but also deeply connected in her community.
I felt a sense of kinship with Anna in my seasonal hosting of butterflies too. The last several chrysalises remain on my porch and I have released 48 butterflies so far this season. It will soon be time to clean the mesh houses and store them until next year. In the meantime, I am grateful to continue to witness their wonder.
Several monarch butterflies have lingered to enjoy the tithonia flowers in our garden and it is a delight to find 4 or 5 on this stand of flowers each day.
I would love to hear your thoughts on these themes of seeking, finding, making and noticing meaning in our daily lives.
What are you curious about? Where are you finding inspiration? How are you making meaning? What are you noticing in this seasonal shift into autumn?
Thank you for reading and being a part of my creative process and community through this newsletter.
With a grateful heart,
Kathryn
Thank you for all the ways you support me and my work.
This was such a pleasure to read Kathryn. Looking forward to your book on creativity. Loved your insight that making meaning is a creative act.
Loved this essay and plan to read the two books you recommend. Even more eager to hear how your book edits are coming along. Hoorah.