I’m surrounded by books; of course, they’re written by other writers. I, who have published minimally, admire and envy their drive and tenacity. I sometimes think that such people are considered to be obsessive by their family members and friends, and until they’ve made a name for themselves, they are looked at with derision.

My biggest regret in life is that I did not publish more. I lost my momentum when Pete decided to forego editing and formatting two books I wrote. I figured that if

they were good enough, he would have gotten around to this. Other things in his and my life also impinged.

I wonder right now if I am going to regret having taken on the book project. I will always wonder if it was also the ultimate form of writing avoidance. Yes, save as many books as is humanly possible, and thus become a hero in the eyes of others.

It was a great idea in theory. I just presumed that there was going to be a point in which the number of books would diminish instead of increase. As it is, now we have books in a U-Haul storage locker, a private garage, my cabin and our goat shed, the Mat-Su School District Warehouse, and The Meeting House/Church of the Covenant. These are books that have been salvaged, sorted, and categorized. All are worthy of saving.

Yesterday and today, I parted company with books that I’d held onto for over a year. They were mostly older textbooks and travel guides. If we had a building, I would have been able to hang onto them. We don’t.

A woman who volunteers at the Palmer Senior Center told me about a property that was for lease in town. After leaving there, I went to check it out. Turns out it was a former sewing shop. Jo, who I knew from horsey circles, had previously said that she was retiring. I had talked to the realtor who owns the place a few months ago. He was not nice then, and he was not nice today. He told me that he had someone who was interested in it – this sounded like a done deal, but he said to call him on Friday.

Although this didn’t work out, I momentarily envisioned the BLBP in a like-place. Leasing would be, right now, the easiest thing to do. However, the places that become available seem to be snatched up in the blink of an eye.

In the meantime, I continue to work out of the Meeting House. It’s barely enough space. Barely. I have managed to keep most of the books in one room, although they do seem from time to time to escape.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep this project going given that there are so many books and no one central space. This is beyond being a challenge. Well, so be it, at least for now.

Next: 163. 6/15/22: Abundance