One Hundred Thirty Eight

 Last week one of my friends posted to social media about her eighty pound weight loss. As you might imagine, the difference in her pictures was profound, but the difference in her countenance was the most priceless of all. The joy, confidence, and freedom radiating from her after eighty pounds fell away was incredible.

I have not lost eighty pounds (nor should I!) but I had a weight loss of a different kind yesterday, and it left me feeling profoundly changed.

One hundred thirty eight books left my shelves.

Remember a few days ago when I talked about how I knew I needed to comb through my brimming shelves and let go of some of the books? 

I did it.

The first shelf was so difficult. I'd pull a book out, stare at it, put it back, and pull it out again. It took me about a half hour to wrestle 14 books from that first shelf. 

But once I started, the rest came flying. I even did a second pass at that first shelf and eliminated a few more. One hundred thirty eight books in total left that shelf and headed to the spare room for rehoming. I pushed the books together to fill the gaps and ended up gaining a shelf and a quarter from the non-fiction side and a shelf from the fiction side. 

Ryan and I had yesterday off, so after the books were purged, we both got busy cleaning and organizing, sorting through piles we have not had time or energy to go through for the last full YEAR. We rearranged, purged, rehomed, and organized every square inch of the office.

I pushed our sofa-table-turned-desk sideways, so rather than sticking out into the middle of the room as it has for the last year, it now nestles up against the window. 

I unloaded the storage cubes from the wooden organizer. We borrowed that organizer from an empty apartment last year and now it can go back into WillowBridge circulation. I moved the storage cubes up to the tops of the bookshelves, and they fit perfectly there.

And when Ryan came home from a trip to his family, he brought me the little wooden glider that was basically the only thing I wanted to have for our home. 

Even before it arrived home, I was perched on the desk by the window, typing out words that apparently just needed a rearranged room in order to find their way out of my mind. I pulled that little lamp over the from the bathroom again so I could get the perfect amount of light. And then I sat and created for longer than I can remember creating in recent months.

Ryan arrived home, pulled the glider out of the back of the truck (and a little side table he thought paired nicely with it) and we immediately carried them into the newly-blank corner of the office.

Perfection.

Or very nearly, anyway. I mean, if a rug and a lamp or two found their way inside, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, right? 

I sat right down and began gliding. It will be the perfect chair for Bible study. And reading. And praying. And brainstorming. And rocking Jeremiah whenever he visits. 

The little room feels brand new. My mind feels renewed. And it all started with a 138 book weight loss.