I am making myself laugh even as I start to write this. I was going to say “I picked up a book the other day.” Funny! If you work at a bookstore, you’re constantly picking up books. Sometimes you’re putting out books for your customers to shop. Sometimes you’re straightening, and returning stray books to the shelves. And sometimes you touch a book and because you’re a bookseller and a book lover, you want that book for yourself or a friend. So I did pick up a book the other day. “The Road Home.” A children’s book. I thought it was sweet, and I had someone in mind to buy it for and send to them. I like the repeating theme, “This road is hard, this road is long, this road that leads us home.” I especially like the page near the end that reads, “This road is hard, this road is long, but we are not alone. For you are here, and I’m with you…”
Seems like we’re all traveling through this journey of life with one destination or the other in mind. It’s good to know where you’re going. It’s good to get to your destination. And surely it is good to enjoy the journey, and to find strength and rest and friends and help, when the road is hard and long. We need that. To not be alone. To have others walk alongside us, and re-affirm we’re going the right way and the destination is worth it.
If your road is hard and long, and you need a place to stop and rest…. A place to be reminded of your value and your purpose… Well, that seems a lot to ask of a MoonPie store that also sells books and gifts. But we are stretching…trying to be a little bit more than that. And sometimes we might have the right word or the right book, to help you with the next little bit of of your journey. So we invite you to come in for a bit, and visit and shop, sit and play checkers, work a puzzle, have a moonpie and an RC, wander the book aisles, find a good book, and possibly discover that we care about you and are glad that you gave us a few minutes of your time as you paused from that long, hard road.
Michael Beagan