Driving from the grocery store, I pulled into the parking lot at the library. I have been a member of the library for well over 25 years, books have been a big part of my life. But in the last 3 years of so, I have read less. I think we all have though, with the proliferation of social media and streaming services. Or at least that’s how I rationalize my decline in reading.

Going through the familiar library entrance, I pass the recommended and new fiction and head towards the aisles with older books of fiction, and there I start browsing.

My mind flashes to an earlier time, a younger more hopeful me browsing at books just like I am. Oh, how much I loved to read!

And there in an aisle at the library, I met myself. Well a version of me. Twenty three years old, a student at the nearby University enthralled by books and life, passing by the library on her way from campus or from her other job. The vision held for a moment, a lightning quick moment, then it slid away.

I, the present me, continued browsing, picked two books that seemed interesting, checked myself out and walked out the library. Maybe I will even finish reading these.