Have you ever had the experience of seeing someone else's work or read a book...and you absolutely love it? But you wish YOU had made it?
For a long time now I have been inspired by a woman who works in the world of creativity. And, I so wish that I were producing like she is.
Fortunately, I have been able to admit that I couldn't write what she wrote. I will be doing other things. And, meanwhile, I can learn from her. She is so talented and generous with her gifts. As I read what she has written I am touched. I chuckle. I absorb her wisdom.
So today I am writing her a card filled with my admiration and esteem. Thank you, Jill (Badonsky), for sharing your inspiration with us.
There are times when life is SO HARD. Or SO CONFUSING. And you feel SO BAD.During times like that you just need support.
Sometimes, though, support is difficult to receive. You just want to curl up in a ball and be alone. You just don't have it enough....it's too hard to be with others.
But you're still getting your mail.
And there's something touching about a quiet letter or card to let you know that someone else cares about you.
My letter for this week is obvious: a Love Letter for Valentine's Day.
I believe that the requirements for a love letter are simple: Sincerity, Specificity and Schmaltz. Write from your heart. Note specific reasons why this person is special to you. And don't hesitate to get sentimental. It is LOVE letter, after all.
Now maybe you're 'not that guy' or girl:
Don't despair. Just like Carrie Bradshaw's boyfriend, Big, in Sex and the City you can take inspiration from others. Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, by C H Charles contains excerpts of letter from Beethoven, Mozart and Churchill (!). Of course, not everyone is in a RELATIONSHIP with a sweetheart or spouse so your Love Letter could simply be a letter to someone you love.
Did you ever have a pen pal when you were young? I did. My elementary school arranged pen pals for us and I wrote to a girl in England for over two years. Her letters arrived in those onionskin-light fold-up packets. I LOVED getting her letters and I loved re-reading them. I can't remember what two 4th-graders had to write about but we each managed to fill our letters. Last night I saw Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and Ann Patchett (Bel Canto) speak as part of the Portland Arts & Lecture Series. They had met briefly at a book fair and began writing to one another. Their friendship developed through letters. How charming. How Victorian. This lecture allowed them to meet in person for the second time but they already knew one another quite well because of all the letters.
The way we reveal our thoughts in a four-page letter is fundamentally different than the way we communicate in an email or on the phone. Which is not to say I don't like my cell phone (what did we do without them?) or email. But as I listened I did envy Liz and Ann's friendship through letters.
Luddite that I am I still prefer the newspaper to getting my news from the internet. For $3.22 a week I get a newspaper on my doorstep every morning. Every day I step downstairs, brew my coffee and walk outside for the Oregonian.
Coffee and the New York Times crossword puzzle--that's a solid way to begin a morning.
Most mornings the paper is sitting on the top step of our back door and I think that's pretty terrific. So I am writing a letter of thanks to the people who deliver our newspaper. I've never seen them but I think they are swell.
Have you ever had the experience of seeing someone else's work or read a book...and you absolutely love it? But you wish YOU had made it?
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