I watched my daughter, young and slender with a head full of short blond waves, staring out the kitchen window at the falling rain. I could see the boredom in her blue-green eyes, reflected against the window pane and my heart ached. La Nina left its dingy mark on my tiny town for nearly thirty days, making her toys begin to fade from bright colors to pastels. Her happy dolls were now depressed. Her Legos preferred to be in a puddle, rather than built into magnificent structures.
I walked over to my daughter and gently placed my hand on hers. She looked up to me and smiled brightly.
“Hey, Momma. Whatcha doin’?”
“Hey, Sweetie. I was actually just thinking that we need a little adventure. What do you think?” Her smile spread even farther, reaching her ears.
“What kind of adventure?” She raised up onto the very top of her tippy-toes, getting as tall as she could manage.
“Well…” I said, thinking for a moment, “I think we should go on a surprise journey to a truly magical place.” She clasped her hands in front of her freckled face and jumped in excitement.
“Let’s do it!”
We quickly loaded into the van, trying to stay dry by running between the drops. Our seatbelts clicked as we harnessed ourselves in securely, ready to embark on our rainy-day excursion.
“So where are we going, Momma?”
“Well, let’s see,” I looked at her eager face in the rearview, “the place we are going can set you free from reality, like leaving this rainy day behind. You can let your ideas can run wild, taking whatever shape your mind will allow. You can visit far away cities, countries, or even planets. Then, magically, it can bring you back to Earth when you’ve been traveling in the cosmic, dark blue space for far too long. It can help you learn to dance, cook, and knit. It can offer you new and magnificent ideas as well as ones you’ve heard time and again.”
“Tell me more!”
“Okay, sure. The place we are going brings hope and love in times of depression. It gives us power at our weakest hour and supports us when we think we’ve got no one on our side. At this place, you can be a superhero, a doctor, a racecar driver or maybe even a rock star! It’s a splendid place of fairytale, a marvelous place of modernity and a noble place of history.”
As we pull into the cement slab parking lot and look up at the building made simply of red brick and grey mortar, I am reminded of many days spent at a place like this, as a kid.
“The library!” Excitement spilled over each syllable as my daughter kicked her feet in delight. “Yay!”
As a child, I loved going to the library with my mom. It was an old building made of stone, reminiscent of a castle or old church with cathedral ceilings and oversized arched windows filled with stained glass. Inside was quiet and smelled of forgotten paper, pinched together between bindings, and filled with the promise of joy. It was my favorite place; I always chose to borrow books from series like Baby Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High, or anything R.L. Stine (to this day, I love a good thriller).
This library was much newer, round in shape and filled with maple wood trim, but still it had that same papery smell I remembered. I could envision my mom picking and choosing her newest novel from the recent returns, right by the librarian. She liked to find gems there. I could hear the beep of the beige boxy computer as it checked out each book to a new renter, eager to learn something new, or dig into an old favorite.
I brought my eyes back to my kid, today, now rummaging through the hard-bound children’s section. Taking her time, she read titles and carefully decided on several that she liked. She walked through the aisles of paperbound treasures filled with bedtime stories, yet to be read, and lightly touched a few familiar titles. Slowly, she gathered even more books to borrow.
By the end, her chosen stack of Star Wars and princess themed books almost reached her eyes, which were gleaming with excitement. My daughter walked up, plopped her stack of books onto the check-out counter, and offered me her biggest grin. The trip to the library had turned her undeniable boredom into an opportunity for exploration. I patted her gently on the head, hoping that one day she’d remember the papery smell, the beep at the check-out counter and the feeling of time spent with me on our journey to this magical place.
“Let’s go, Momma!” she said excitedly. “I have some adventures to begin!”
Photo Courtesy of Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
Danielle Dayney 
How magical! I remember loving the library so much when I was younger too and spent more time in Hastings in the book department than the video section. Lots of adventure was had too. I bet she loved all of them!
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She did. She really loves Star Wars right now and couldn’t believe all the free books there were to read on it!
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Oh the magic of libraries! I’m so glad it’s my toddler’s favorite place too 🙂 Beautifully written, Danielle!
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Thanks! I’m so happy that she loves to read as much as I do.
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Such a sweet and tender beginning! Glad she was as excited to go there as you were! Also was a lover of babysitters club and sweet valley high. Good memories!!
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Best books ever.
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So right. The one place where you can be anything you want! And the best part, she was excited!
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I’m so lucky that my kid loves to read =)
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This is wonderful! I have memories of my grandmother taking me to the library. I sometimes spent almost a whole day there and came away with stacks of books. I also loved Sweet Valley High and R.L.Stine! Such good times.
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R.L. Stine was my favorite.
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Such a charming story! I loved reading this because it reminded me so strongly of my own mother.
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Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
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I love that your daughter was so excited about a tradition you had with your mother. I wish my boys liked the library. Reading is one of my favorite things to do but they always choose video games (apparently the reading for school is enough for them).
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Hopefully her love for reading lasts. Right now it’s new and exciting to her, so I think that’s why she adores it so much.
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What a wonderful story! I fondly remember going to the library as a kid. I love the paper smell of books. It’s comforting and nostalgic for me! Still to this day, I much prefer the feel of a book in my hands instead of reading on the Kindle. 😃
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Me too! I absorb much more with book in hand.
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Wonderful story! My daughter would choose reading over almost every other activity, and still does when she can manage.
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That smell, I hope there will always be libraries.
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Me too. It’s crazy to me that I can rent out electronic books from my library now. They just appear on my nook and then disappear two weeks later. It’s crazy.
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I just realized I said “it’s crazy” twice.
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Truly, libraries are magical places! And on a rainy day, it surely brings a rainbow of smiles on our faces.
Amazing post😃
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Yes they do! Thank you for commenting =)
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I remember my mother taking us to the library too as a young child and signing me up for my first summer reading program. I have loved the library every since. Thanks for linking up with us at the #LMMLinkup this week.
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Still to this day Love Libraries. Adventures abound ~ You can go anywhere.
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