Grab a cozy cup of coffee and enjoy the read! This post contains affiliate links for books and comfort items. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission that helps keep the pages turning at no extra cost to you.
I've Never Cared What I Wore in a Library Before. Until Boston.
I went to Massachusetts for the Creative Compass Retreat and I did not expect to come home a different person. I expected to come home with books. I was right about that part.
The retreat itself was the kind of thing that's hard to explain to someone who wasn't there. It was intentional and warm and full of people who understood why you'd travel across the country to sit in a room and talk about making things. One of those people was Peter H. Reynolds — the author and illustrator of The Dot. If you teach first grade, you already know. If you don't, The Dot is the book I use to teach my firsties that making your mark matters — that the first dot, even a small one, even an imperfect one, is enough to start. I've read it out loud more times than I can count. And there he was. In person. At the retreat. I visited his studio. I saw his work. Tears of joy. That's all I'll say about that. Someone remind Future Kreisa to write about it.
In between the retreat and the tears of joy, my husband & I walked seven miles through Boston and stumbled — kitty-corner, mid-stride — onto the Boston Public Library. I hadn't planned to find it that way. I just looked up and there it was, castle-like and majestic with black cast-iron street lamps lining the steps and words carved along the top and flags hanging between the windows. I hummed the Rocky theme song the entire way up the steps. I felt underdressed inside for the first time in my reading life — and I have never once cared what I wore in a library before.
I finished In Cold Blood on that trip and left it at a Little Free Library I found on my walk — which happened to belong to one of the retreat hosts. I started The Girl Who Drank the Moon on the way home. And I blew my entire local bookstore budget at the Boston Public Library gift shop on a booktrovert bag, book earrings, a journal, and a sweatshirt. My mom usually brings me bags of books. This time I bought her a bag and sweatshirt from the library.
Back to my books — there's always another one piquing my pages.
💭 Want the full behind-the-scenes? I wrote more on the blog. [Read it here](https://kreisaduwe.com/blog)