There is a beautifully unspoken presence in libraries. It is an immediate sense of home. A calm presence, a safe haven, somewhere to run to when anxious or sad or lonely. I have always been attracted to the welcoming and accepting presence that fills almost every library that I have ever visited. It is here I runaway to from home when I am at my worst or don't feel good enough, I know it will accept me in all my ugliness. I run to my library when I feel lonely and feel there is no one there for me, the building surrounds me in comfort and hold me. I know at any moment I can lose my too-active and straying mind in these foundations, the books. I never mind feeling accepted, it is the feeling I most cherish, when I know I can come to something in all my beauty and horror and know it will not judge, it will not bash, nor talk down upon me, it won't even try and give me advice. The presence will just be, quiet and calm. My library makes me feel at home, more at home than home, a sanctuary where I can lay my true spirit. I lay all my emotion and baggage and am met with the universal solution for a heavy heart, a quiet presence. Libraries have an all-knowing presence, maybe it's the large array of books, fusing the air with wisdom, maybe it's the structure that is never rushed, maybe it's the intention- giving a service to anyone who walks through its doors, maybe it's all these things that give my spirit a home to be free. I love this feeling, an unexplainable familiarity, a clear space that give my thoughts the chance to slow down. Anytime my spirit feels in danger I think of my local library, I sit down and know I am in place, what a humbling feeling, what a beautiful space. Libraries I love you. One of the most special and interesting aspects of libraries it that this atmospheric feeling is carried throughout all libraries. It is strange going into somewhere you've never been and still feeling at home. I have felt this way many of times when I visit a new library, even when I look at pictures of libraries, I've never been to I am in awe of its peaceful beauty, it is just there. Libraries are almost motherly in the way they care for a person's spirit it cares for you in a way you never thought to ask, it gives you everything you need and makes you feel loved. My library loves me, it never judges how I feel or doubt me, it doesn't care how look, it lends me the all-knowing, the presence of now. I cannot hide how I feel because that would mean denial, the presence tells me to feel, it tells me to let go and when I leave that emotion, that never was, is now no longer my identity. A library lends me a glance at my true self, a wave of calm, a motion of being. This is my thank you, for helping me rediscover the sacred me that gets lost all-too easily with outside world influences. I have had very hefty awe-striking moments in libraries-I have cried-I have laughed, I have gained knowledge. Wisdom cannot be taught, only through being is it felt, the crashing silence in every library help me rediscover what is outside of myself in every visit. The only word I can give to describe this topic is beauty because it is of highest perfection, it is the closest word in terms of pure unjudgmental, intentional silence, purposeful quiet, entire meaningfulness, it is beauty.