“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you,” Jane Goodall once said. “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
All summer long at the Plumb Library in Rochester, the staff will be laying out various ways for people to provoke a passive influence on the immediate environment – a peace that begins with the self, a positive vibe, if you will, that perhaps ripples gently out during various small acts of creativity and mindful calmness.
The national summer library program theme for 2017 is “Build a Better World,” and the Plumb Library has a number of kid and young adult and adult programs aimed at building a better world that starts with you, the library, the town, and out into the collective world around us and within us.
Recently, younger library patrons filled the grassy grounds outside the library with laughter, smiles, and joyful leaps into the air chasing after bubbles, because what better way is there to elicit the joy and excitement of a child than with gigantic bubbles reflecting the color spectrum of the sun on a hot summer’s day – and then pop! – cascading over faces and arms, drenching the little bodies and cooling off skin in the mid-day heat.
Then on Monday, July 24, Library Assistant Lisa Fuller et al. provided a number of implements of mass creation that only required one to enter through the library doors, take a seat, and engage in quiet creative contemplation.
Peace with Paper was just one of many drop-in activities offered to provide relaxing, meditative pursuits, this time through paper media – rolls of crisp paper for murals, mandala coloring books, origami paper for pensive, purposeful folds – just simple ways for folks to unwind in a space that is quiet and relaxing, says Fuller.
“Although, for me origami isn’t that relaxing,” chuckled Fuller. But she hoped that others would enjoy the centering act of coloring and drawing as a way to make momentary peace into a more lasting peace to share with the world.
Coming up at the Plumb Library are even more activities to ‘Build a Better World,’ including music and movement for kids with Ms. Nancy Sparklin on July 28, August 4, and 11. There is ‘Dog Craft’ with Greyhound Pets of America on Saturday, July 29, and patrons are encouraged to bring a donation for the Greyhound Pets of America shelter in Middleboro as part of the Build a Better World theme.
There are drop-in as well as registration-required events practically every day at the library, so visit the library website at www.plumblibrary.com and check out the calendar of events page.
By Jean Perry
