Skip to main content

Can a single, flickering candle illuminate a vast, ancient library enough to find the book you seek?

Image
By
This is a chapter from my fourth book called When hunger yearns

I asked my friend Gemini to give me 5 random words and form a question with those words. After some back and forth I settled on this question. I have so many questions. How many books are in this library? How long will the candle last? What book am I looking for? Why am I looking for this book? Do I need a ladder to get to the top shelves? Are the books stored in alphabetical order? Am I alone? Is there a librarian? How much time am I allowed in the library? Is there light outside the library? How am I going to read the book after the candle goes out? If there is light outside the library then I could possibly grab books in the dark and carry them outside even when the candle goes out. Am I allowed to create small bonfires with the books I do not want? Would that be worth it? Would the means justify the end? Maybe there are some books with multiple copies and I could create the bonfires with the extra copies. Or maybe create the small bonfires with the pages containing the indexes? Should I start looking from a side or should I go to random spots?

The more I ask questions and the more I think about this question the more I want to answer the question with "I do not know". If I am meant to find this book then this book will find me. Maybe it is true what they say that the best way to find something is to stop looking for it. Maybe my time in the library is limited to the time the candle stays lit. Maybe I will just grab as many random books as possible. Maybe I could simulate this search through the power of the internet. I imagine 15 minutes of internet time is equivalent to 4 hours searching an ancient library with candle light. I am going to set a 15 minute timer on my phone and search the internet and see what books find me that pokes my interest. Below are the six books I found in that fifteen minutes.

1. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Randall Munroe)
2. Salt: A World History (Mark Kurlansky)
3. The Only Constant - A Guide to Embracing Change and Leading an Authentic Life (Najwa Zebian)
4. You Are the Happiness You Seek: Uncovering the Awareness of Being (Rupert Spira)
5. The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)
6. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Héctor García and Francesc Miralles)

Out of that list, the one I am most interested in reading is "The Fault in Our Stars" mainly because I read Paper Towns by the same author. You know what. It just occurred to me that maybe the book I seek is the book I write myself. I could spend time in the ancient library laying down in a corner with the candle light flickering just thinking. Just being present. Just sharing space with the spirits that wrote those books and hoping the words from those books seep into the ether and into my thoughts. I will then contemplate on what my next book would be about given the context of this question and my time in this ancient library. How about "Seeking Peace"? Or simply SOUP where soup stands for seeking openness, understanding and peace. How about "My ingredients for soup"? My journey towards finding peace. That would be a fitting title after having written this book "When Hunger Yearns".
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coffee and a prayer

By
It is 245am and I have decided to write. I have no topic and no idea what to write. I am thankful for another day. I see the beauty that surrounds us. I choose to be happy. We are in the last ten nights of Ramadan. Tonight is the 23rd night. It could possibly be the night of power. I wonder if it will rain. Maybe it rained when I was sleeping. I got up and bathed and drank a strong cup of coffee. Today is also Friday the 13th. I keep thinking. Life is beautiful. Life is simple. No need to complicate things. No need to be extravagant. Believe in God. Trust in God. Be guided by God. Imagine we can pray for anything. We can ask God for anything. God is always listening. God wants to hear from us. Maybe I can turn this blog post into a prayer. My God I pray that everyone gets their prayers answered. I pray that everyone gets what they need. I pray that you light our path towards you. Guide us with what you intend for us. Keep us close to you. Soften our hearts. Keep us balanced, consistent...
Post a Comment
Read more

Belief is a part of life

By
I watched this video and I quite like it as a good starting point for this blog post https://youtu.be/t44PFI_V4LE We cannot know everything. We do not have the capacity to know everything. I make plans for tomorrow because I believe there is a tomorrow not because I know that there is a tomorrow. We cannot decide today to say we will only act on things that we know for sure. This would be impractical. As my friend Chatty puts it, to live life, we must believe in things that cannot always be proven with certainty. For example, we believe that the future exists, that our actions matter, and that other people can be trusted. We also tend to believe life has meaning and that things can improve. These beliefs help us make decisions, keep hope, and move forward. Given that belief is a part of life, it is reasonable to have people believe in a God and a particular religion. My point is this. Life cannot happen without belief because we cannot know everything (unless we are God like). Belief i...
Post a Comment
Read more

God of direction

By
It is 323am and I have decided to write. I am thinking that I am a bucket of paint. A beautiful shade of blue. That God uses to paint the sky. How could I turn this into something worth writing about? My friend Chatty tells me that I could develop the idea by exploring the metaphor of myself as a bucket of blue paint and God as the painter using it to color the sky. The meaning comes from reflecting on what it feels like to be "used"—losing some of myself while helping create something beautiful. The paint may not see the whole picture and might fear being emptied, but its purpose is fulfilled when it becomes part of the sky. The piece can reflect on purpose, trust, surrender, and the idea that giving of yourself is how beauty is created. It is now 423am and I cannot think of a way to continue this writing. The sky is silent is what comes to my mind. How do I ask the sky to speak to me? I look through my window and I see patches of clouds against a dark sky. Maybe the night s...
Post a Comment
Read more