What really matters? What’s it all for anyway? What do you really want?

I found the answers watching this film.

I went to see Hello, Bookstore at Alnwick Playhouse last night.

It’s a gentle fly on the wall documentary about Matt Tannenbaum, the owner of a magical bookshop in Lenox, Massachusetts. It’s a deliciously rambling film - like a long lunch date with an old friend that you never want to end. I came out feeling like the universe had given me the answers I had been looking for.

Starting again, building my life from the ground up in Alnwick, I’d been asking:

• What really matters?

• What’s it all for anyway?

• What do I really want?

  [I had been inspired to ask the big questions this week by Emily McDowell of

  Unqualified
  and her devastatingly honest post about the cost of building a huge business]

I resonated so much with what she wrote.

Moving to Alnwick is a chance for me to start afresh.

On a long drive back from the South earlier this month, I listened to an audio book on ‘manifesting the life you want’. It asks you to get clear about what you really want and ‘create a mission statement’.

I came up with this:

I am creating a simple life of ease, fun and freedom, full of love, creativity and more than enough money.

That’s what I really want, I wrote.

It’s a sign.

I’m a great one for asking for ‘signs’.

This film gave me a gentle sign that I’m heading in the right direction.

Hello, Bookstore is about a triumph of passion over profit, it’s about the community coming together (to save the bookstore when Covid threatens its existence), it’s about the contagious enthusiasm for books and writing and the love of stories and a man at the centre of it who follows his heart.

When I arrived in Alnwick 18 months ago when my relationship with my boyfriend was breaking down, when I was missing my son who gone off to university, I headed to my local bookstore for comfort and inspiration.

I craved wise stories that might soothe, comfort and give me something to hang on to in the depths of Winter.

Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

Wonder, awe, pirates and dragons

A chance meeting at a book launch with Tricia Cresswell who had written her first  (prize-winning) historical novel The Midwife (set in Alnwick!) led me to building a community of other writers, artists and musicians. All of whom have been fundamental in helping to set up the inaugural Alnwick Story Fest, a community project we launched last year.

Together, we created a festival about stories, having fun, being inspired and talking about ideas and imaginary worlds, of wonder, awe, love, dragons, pirates and secret gardens. Hollywood directors mingled with local poets and beloved authors for one dark weekend earlier this year in February - it was a joy.

Last night, I was invited to go to see Hello, Bookstore by two of my new friends – Helen, the owner of the Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick (award-winning indie bookshop, no less!) and with Helena who works there, both fundamental players in the organisation of our little local festival.

I sat there watching this film about books, joy and love of literature with my lovely new friends and had a moment of unbridled happiness.

• When life feels grim, what do you do?

• When you feel lost and alone, where do you go?

For me, it meant heading to my local bookstore and seeking out stories and people who make my heart leap. It’s finding those people who are interesting and interested, who are willing to create things out of the ether, who are willing to give their energy and ideas to doing something positive, fun and inspiring.

What about you?

Where are the places you can go and who are the people you need to seek out when you want a heart leap moment?

Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash