I suppose I have gotten used to waking early and driving a long way to work because for the last week I've been making a much shorter drive to attend a training class, which I have been very early for. This morning I took a short walk through the downtown area. The main purpose was to purchase some breakfast from Mostly Muffins, but the waking up of a city is an enjoyable experience. To hear the pressure washers on the sidewalk, delivery trucks unloading, City employees setting up bleachers for an event later in the day, and seeing the twilight-like glow of sunshine reflecting off canopies and trees are wonderful images of the downtown area.
Two doors from Mostly Muffins, which wasn't open yet, is Bienville Books. I love the alliteration, but it really reminds me that I have never figured out how Bienville could be D'Iberville's brother as much as it stirs my love of literature. The store has a setback door with windows to either side as do many of the downtown stores. In this one are many books about Halloween subjects, Frankenstein, Dracula, books on ghosts in Mobile, a t-shirt that says "I read dead people" and more. Interspersed with that were several science fiction titles, some old, some not. Robert Heinlein, Ursala K. LeGuin, Douglas Adams and more that stirred me as did the waking of Mobile.
I returned to peruse the window again, this time with muffin in hand, and contemplated the rejuvenated feeling I had for my own science fiction work in progress and reminded myself that just like a walk through the display of a book store can rekindle our love and desire for a topic, so can attending a church service.
Revivals don't always have to be on a grand scale with a gospel choir and a tent. Sometimes they are no less effective if they happen as a matter of every day events.
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