Gibran, "The Prophet"

For Labor Day weekend, I went on an 11 mile hike in Pt. Reye's National Park, all I can say is that it's an incredibly long and arduous hike. That is, until we finally met up with the group that left earlier and realized that they got lost and took an even more tedious path with higher elevation changes ... guess things aren't so bad after all!

Then I had a chance to go up to Berkeley, sat and chat under the shade of Cafe Strata, walked around and explored little shops, ate at mom&pappa diners, and even tasted the famous "Zachary's" pizza. I like the pile of roasted tomato served in their signature deep-dish pizza.. Yum... We did some sight seeing around the Berkeley campus, as well as drove up the Centennial Drive and saw some wonderfully scenic spots. I didn't know that there was a botanical garden tucked away by the mountain hills above Cal., I had the chance to match some Chinese traditional herbal medicine plants to their popular American names. That was fun!

The best part is that we parked near the used bookstore called "Shakepeare & Co.", I wandered into it not really expecting much. But to my surprise, my heart skiped a beat when I found several old copies of the "Prophet" by Kahil Gibran. (I searched "Bell's books" the other day in Palo Alto and didn't find any.)

There is just something about a copy of a book that has a rich history and was in existence before I was even born. I ended up picking up a 1966 hardbound copy of the "Prophet", a faded dust jacket, slightly yellow-ing pages, and the original illustrations... But there is something special about this book, I opened up the cover to see this inscription on the front, in neat penmanship:
"Mary,
'All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of life's heart.'
- with Love, Lou " 1966

Can you imagine that? somewhere many many years ago, a boy loved a girl named Mary...

then when I flipped inside the book, a little card fell out
"These eleven roses and you, Mary, make one beautiful dozen. Love, Louie"

This is a Borzoi book, initially published in 1923, this copy I found was the seventy-seventh printing, June 1966 ... It's something I can't quite describe to own a piece of art work that was once given and cherished with love...