Today I am moving my visualization to the center of our house, a roughly octagonal library space. I am continuing with the book THE LIFE-CHANING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo.  The library is my favorite part of this house, or would be if I could see it properly and walk through it. Due to lack of display cases for my beautiful collection of antique typewriters, they are in huge boxes with huge amounts of packing material, being safe, but also filling the entire middle of the Library with their presence.

I visualize the Library so very very differently.

I see the shelves, filled with beautiful books–my books rather than boxes of electrical supplies and machine manuals. There are all sorts of books for education. Literature, reference, and other sets of books that are lovely on the shelves. The glass book cases hold older books and a couple of small microscopes.  The right hand wall contains history and religion. The left hand wall is filled with literature and how-to books, the section closest to the kitchen holds the cook-books and books on nutrition.

The floor is completely clear. The lower cupboards below the shelves can be opened at any time without moving anything out of the way. Useful supplies are in the cupboards. School supplies and office supplies.

There is a round table in the center of the room. It is empty, waiting for a game to be played, or homework to be done. There are chairs surrounding this table, four of them, but two others are in use in the living room and can be retrieved when needed. A single piece of art sits in the center of the table, the center light of the library shining down on it, when the table is not otherwise in use.

Family pictures reside on several of the narrow shelves that back up against the library side of the staircase to the second floor. There are paperback books on this wall. All sorts of historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and other books the children may read when they are older. All by authors admired by their father and myself.

The door to the master bedroom, used as my husband’s office is closed.

The split door to the powder room is closed. Inside that split door is a small, oddly shaped powder room.  It is clean, and welcoming.

Dear Lord, Thank you for such a beautiful place to keep my books. Please help me to convince the entire family to help keep it the way it needs to be kept. +Amen.