Bound By Gratitude

What is gratitude? According to the dictionary, it is the feeling of being grateful. But what does that truly mean? Gratitude in practice is the mental state and emotional response characterized by feelings of thankfulness and appreciation. What does that feel like as a human? Having gratitude feels warm like a nice spring day right on the cusp of summer. It brings us joy and happiness, the type that makes us grin and our cheeks pink. It also builds relationships when we express gratitude for one another. It fosters a closeness through appreciation for what someone or something has done for us. 

How do we experience and express gratitude? It is possible to have these feelings toward objects, people, or moments. We often tend to be grateful for the people in our lives and what they do for us. Many could say they have the most gratitude for their relationships, their health, their job, or basic life necessities (food, water, shelter). For me though, it is an object, or objects, that I have the most gratitude for. I am most grateful for books. Yes, books and I want to share exactly why they are gifts to this world. 

Books have given so much to my life in so many beautiful ways. Pages filled with words bound together to create magical stories, what could be more special? The never-ending number of genres that exist provides a story for everyone to enjoy. Fantasy books offer an escape for people away from normal boring life. Romance novels give readers a sweet love story (or a spicy one) to feel in love. Thrillers and mysteries offer readers nail-biting stories that you must read to believe. Self-help books encourage you to be the best you can be. True crime, Historical Fiction, or even cookbooks for novice and experienced chefs. The list goes on and on. Walk into your local bookstore and you’ll be amazed by the number of stories to choose from. There are so many options for people to enjoy. Truly, anybody can find a book they can love and get lost in. 

I am also thankful for the relationships we can build around books. They are genuinely something so unique and special. You and I can be on opposite sides of the world reading the same novel. While doing so, we are having the same feelings as we read each passage. We are crying over the same heartbreak, laughing at the same jokes, blushing over the same kissing scene. We share emotions and we don't even know each other. Books bring out human emotions that we need to feel and knowing that others are sharing the same experience as you read the same 400 pages of the most recent viral book is an exceptional feeling.

The community around books is a crazy world too. There are so many ways to make friends through books. You can meet someone at the library, a bookstore, or even a local book club. Passing around books to your friends once you've finished reading them or dropping them off at the local free little library. So many readers just want to share their books. The book community is so large, and welcoming. Anybody is welcome,

The social media presence around books has exploded in the past year. Young adults have been pouring out their love for reading and their favorite author's novels. It's a sweet community. We just truly adore books and want to share our love for them. That is something I'll never be able to get over. It's something that gives me the most gratitude. Books bring us close even if we are far apart, even if we are just friends on the Internet.  

As a book lover in the book community, it is such a lovely feeling watching people fall in love with books. For me, I received my love for books from one person and that was from the kindest soul that ever existed, my aunt. She was beautiful, courageous, and everything I strive to be in this world. My aunt passed away in 2014 due to breast cancer and it left a deep wound in my family, her community, and myself. She was a librarian at her local school district until she got too sick to work. As you can imagine, she loved books and she wanted everyone, every child, to love books the way she did. I didn't see it then. I felt books were silly and boring. If I could go back in time, I would change everything about those feelings. I'd ask her more about her favorite novels and her favorite authors. I would've had the closeness that I know now books can bring to a relationship. 

I started getting into reading a few years ago after a conversation in therapy about my aunt and my grief. I felt like I was losing every part I had left of her. My therapist asked me about my aunt and suggested reading to get close to her. I felt it was silly at the time. I still hated reading, but I gave it a try and realized my therapist was right. I did feel closer to my aunt. Knowing that I was doing something she loved so much made me so at peace. I felt close to her even though we were far apart. I am reading for her now. Ones that she never got to read. Novels, she enjoyed herself. It's how I remember her. It's how I feel close to her. And I'll never stop being grateful for books for giving me pieces of my aunt back and helping me grieve the greatest loss of my life.

My immense amount of gratitude for books is a much larger conversation than just the book. It’s the community that comes with it. The connections we make. The emotions that we feel. The memories. The closeness to my aunt. Books give me all these beautiful things. I am not sure gratitude is even enough to express how much reading has changed my life.

You see, there are plenty of things in this world to have gratitude for, some are simple things like water and food, and some are complex such as a deep emotional connection to memorabilia or in my case, a book. So, tell me, what do you have gratitude for? Because you deserve to find it and enjoy the things that bring you joy.