A year that was a handful—and heartful
- Agent McSueño
- Aug 2, 2017
- 2 min read
One day you'll wake up. You'll look in the mirror. And you'll realize: I'm a year old!
Or, most likely that happened a long time ago, and you didn't recognize it cause at the tender age of 1, you didn't yet know what a year or a mirror or being awake was. That's sorta how we feel right now.
The Guerrilla Book Club turned 1 year old back on June 6th, and though we've been sneaking around like usual—paying reading forward with our favorite books—here we are already at the beginning of August, and we barely even noticed turning a year old. One more thing we took for granted.
In the short time since the GBC began, the idea of Guerrilla Bookgiving has taken off globally. Look no further than the ever inimitable Emma Watson and her successful band of book fairies, and you'll begin to see the power of an idea like this in the world.
The Guerrilla Book Club offers to live up to a big promise that these past 12 months have revealed. We've been reminded that we live in a world that harbors hate (Orlando), terror (Paris), and tragedy (Syria). We've said goodbye to many who inspired us (Prince?!) and were taken from us too soon. We've witnessed the world change in ways that made some feel powerful and others powerless (Brexit, Trump).
If you paid attention to any of this news, these past 12 months were certainly a handful. But if you've spent any time embracing the radically empowering idea of Paying Reading Forward, these past 12 months have been a heartful.
Anything can be taken for granted, or in other words, we've become indifferent enough that it can be taken away from us. It's this indifference that allows the times we live in, such as the last 12 months, to poison us. What good is a personally meaningful book when it sits on your bookshelf slowly collecting dust, slowly losing the profound impact it had on you? By all means, please do cherish (and hoard!) your books, but don't take them for granted. As an act of kindness, and as an antidote to a world that takes what we take for granted, Guerrilla Bookgiving both recharges the power a book has on your heart and you get to light up someone else's heart too.
“A thousand candles can be lighted from the flame of one candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness can be spread without diminishing that of yourself.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
So, fellow Agents, happy belated birthday to us. And happy birthday to the idea that you can inspire change in the world just by paying forward the book that inspires it in you.
Here's to getting older, to getting bolder, to finding ways of enjoying the preciousness of life, to taking nothing for granted, to living up to what we came here to do. Happy Guerrilla Bookgiving.
