Bless you is a phrase we all use on regular basis, in fact I bet you have said this to a complete stranger in the last week. Even in our religious-a -phobic culture "Bless you" is complete intertwined into the everyday. However very few people every question why we respond to some one sneezing with "bless you". This odd cultural behavior originates way back in the times of the black plague. You see then final stage of the black plague was sneezing fits so when the black plague descended on England it became common place to say may god bless you when someone began to sneeze because it meant that they would be dead soon. This is my one bit of trivia... some people collect random facts as a hobby but I feel like I don't really have to room in my brain for a ton of facts so I just have this one. When I was little I got the book " Do Fish Drink Water?" as gift and basically it was this big book full of answers to all the questions children ask that no one really knows the answer to. It was a fitting gift because I was a curious and questioning little girl. Well a few years ago I re-gifted the book to the family I babysit for but the one thing I will always remember from the book that helped answer many of my silly questions as a kid, is the origins of "bless you".

I cant throw out My Books ... Even if I had to buy for school, or if its my favorite book from third grade, when it comes to books I can never bring myself to throw them out. Maybe its because when I own a book I write in the margins. ( yes I write in the margins.... even though its considers the largest book sin ever and the say its DEFACEMENT.) Those little scrawls and notes are a part of me and I kinda feel like the shouldn't go to some else till I pass away. every book I have ever owned sits on my shelf as testament to the reader that I am. If that makes me a hopeless romantic so be it. Sure I own an e-reader but Books are such a big part of who I am that I just cant bring myself to get rid of them. One day I'll own a house with an old fashioned library and my books will have a true place. And in that library I'll show my child the wonder and knowledge that you can find in books.... at least that's what I hope for!