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The Library as Haven---a lesson from loss


We lost one of our new graduates this summer.
It was an awful, tragic loss.
She was a beautiful soul.  She was one of my library kids.

As we gathered together to say our goodbyes, I noticed something important.
So important that it has rendered me quiet for a bit with the sheer magnitude of it all.
I had to take a bit to take it all in and really, truly grab hold to it before I was ready to talk about it here.
But you need to know it....and I need to share it with you.

Our work is important.
Vital.
Books are great, research is awesome, technology is cool---yes.
But our greatest job is that of a haven; a place of safe community.

Those teens at the funeral that day---well over 50 of them---those were my kids.
Before it began they were hugging one another and me.  They were comforting one another and me. They circled up to pray together---united in love for one of their own regardless of any of the ways you could have chosen to separate and organize them by their apparent differences. They were telling stories and reminding one another of the fun and funny things they had all been through. There was love in that room.

Some are Cosmo kids, some are Auto-Shop kids, some are in all AP classes. We have Harry Potter fandom kids, and Dragon Pride kids, and student body officer kids. We have Choir kids and Band kids, and Theatre kids. We have Drill Team kids, we have Football players, we have FFA officers. We had a multitude of religions, ethnic, and racial differences that could have divided them.
But all these kids are my kids.
They are united by the library.
As many of them spoke of during the funeral itself, they met in the library.  They hung out in the library. They became friends in the library. They were there for each other in the library.

I do not share this to brag--it just really isn't about me.
I do not share this lightly---because this matters.
I share this to remind you on those hard days that what we do best is to bring people together.
Y'all, we make a real difference.
We are a shining beacon. We are a place of hope and refuge and knowledge. We are a place of acceptance and friendship and love. We are a space of non-judgement and thinking and learning through both seriousness & through play.
We hold space for folks..

And these truths can change the world for the better.
Go be that person who creates that space for our kids.
Go hard knowing what you do is not an "extra" or frivolous or less than any classroom teacher.
Go do that hard beautiful work knowing that the legacy you leave is an important one.
Our names may never be in the history books, but do not doubt the work we are doing is life-changing, soul-shifting, eye-opening, heart-expanding, making-the-world-more-beautiful work.


As beautiful, kind, caring & giving as Ellie was in life, she remains in death.  
She gave me the gift of this knowing in a way that will never ever leave me. 
I will never doubt the importance of what I do again. 
That's just Ellie's way.  She was the most dear and darling Hufflepuff of them all.
Those who were blessed to know her, will never forget her.  

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