Lead with my Heart...Follow with the Pen

The first week, in my new letter writing adventure, began with a couple of birthday letters. Easy enough. Then I turned to my basket of Christmas cards, filled with newsy notes, received during the holiday season. It felt good to respond to those notes, acknowledging all that had happened throughout the previous year.

When I first started planning my writing goal, I had all sorts of questions that needed to be answered. If I wrote a letter a day, would that include week-ends? Would it count if I wrote to people other than friends and family? Since I didn't have 365 people in my address book, could I write to someone more than once?  How would I determine who I would write to each day?  

After answering the other questions, I have decided that I don't want a methodical plan for determining who will receive my next letter. I know that special dates and situations will dictate when some letters are sent and who will receive them. If I am really trying to write from my heart, I suspect that too much analyzing and too much of a system might be counterintuitive. If I really want to try and compose a letter that might nurture as well as communicate, I need to just trust my feelings and let my heart take the lead.

Sir, more than kisses,

letters mingle souls;

For, thus

friends, absent speak.

 

   John Donne 1598



                                                                             





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A Lesson from Grandpa

My mother cranked down the
window, in the back seat of the old car,
and casually tossed her gum
wrapper into the breeze.
Moments later, the car was being

 guided to the side of the road and
my mother directed to retrieve her trash.

 

"Oh Daddy," my mother whined,
 "it's just a little piece of paper."
 

"The countryside
will soon be filled with trash," my
grandfather warned, "if everyone
tosses  little pieces of paper
 out of the window."

It was the early 1930s. 
My mother was about six years old.

 

 My parents raised me much the way my mother's parents had raised her... a rare spanking, the occasional restriction, and what seemed like, endless lessons about  personal and social responsibility. It was never about other's opinions of my actions ....it was always about how my actions would affect them. There were times when a good spanking would have been easier.

 I guess it was only a matter of time before I began to contemplate the amount of paper my seemingly harmless letter writing resolution could generate. I wasn't about to abandon my resolution because of a concern over adding to the landfill, but I knew I needed to give this issue some thought.

My solution? A sweet, sentimental one that will, understandably, sound weird to some people.  If you knew my mom, you'd understand. Letter writing was such a regular part of my mom's life that she had drawers of stationary and note cards. I've saved a lot of them...tucked  into a box...stored away...thinking someday it would be easier to toss them out. I didn't think I'd ever write enough letters to use them up. Now, I just might.

Just one of my possible note card and stationery choices for January.