I went into the bookstore on a whim.
Once inside I was overwhelmed by the infinite amount of possibility that those four walls contained. I could have spent days running my fingers up and down the spines that contain so many spirits, stories, and secrets.
I picked up, examined, and put back about forty books over the course of an hour. Near the end of it I realized that - though I entered the bookstore just after lunch - I had a gnawing hunger in the pit of my stomach. The source of that hunger was a loneliness that comes from not finding what you're looking for - and not knowing what it is you're setting out to find, anyway.
Below: from a haunting collection of poetry in a book called "Nostalgia, My Enemy" by Saadi Youssef.
Here in Victoria, BC there's so much to explore. Some days I wander around in nature. Other times, I want to be in the middle of the calm hum and movement of the downtown core. Today was a downtown day.
It looks like, since Mei passed away, their shop has sat empty. It used to be a dry cleaning business.
The tables outside the library have plants in the middle. Everything is more alive than it was in Toronto.
