Serendipity...This lovely word, Serendipity, ought to be the name for the used book store I frequent (in the basement of a local library.) It never fails that I find, amid a fairly limited selection, a book on a subject I have recently begun researching, or a novel someone recently suggested that I read, or a book by a favorite author that I could not afford new.
Thursday I invited serendipity into my life by running into the library on my way to collect Haiku from her gymnastics lesson. I was happy to find a novel with an elegant cover and an equally elegant name, The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. Anything Asian resonates with me these days, due to Senryu's exchange in Taiwan. I also found an old collection of stories and poetry by a favorite fantasy author, Ursula K. LeGuin, author of Cat Wings and many wonderful tales.
A really lovely find was two books (one a hardback) by lifestyle author Alexandra Stoddard. I have several of her books, but she has written many that I do not yet own. I particularly love the quotes she adds to the margins of her writing.
Yesterday while instant messaging, Senryu made a comment about a friends "Meg-Like I.Q." I instantly recognized that she was referring to Meg from M. L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time. The conversation flowed on, and then she paused to say, "I love that you get my references." This quote in one of the A. Stoddard book's comments on that sort of happening:
"I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing." ~ Katherine Mansfield
If we are fortunate, the comfort of friendship - or as I consider it, harmony - also exists within a close, loving family. It is a sweet thing to explain nothing and yet be understood, isn't it?
photo by Aisling, February 2007
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