Today I hit the jackpot! When I looked through my stack of mail, there were two hand-written letters from friends. You could have knocked me over with a feather! You have no idea how much it means to me to hear from you. Let me tell you.
One letter writer commented she didn't know how I had time to write hand-written letters. I have to admit that I don't send letters in the summer ... ever. Now that I am back to spending a good part of an hour daily in front of the happy light, I'm writing a lot more and it's so therapeutic for me. I've pretty much gone through my Rolodex and written to everyone I can think of. The other envelope I received was from a friend who is not much for writing letters but her note warmed my heart just the same.
I don't know what you all do with letters you get from friends, but I save mine. I have a hanging folder labeled "Cards & Photos from Friends and Family". After I read your letters, I drop them in the hanging folder and I pull them out once in a blue moon to look at and treasure. I don't keep cards that have simply been signed unless they are particularly funny. Gene and I had a conversation about this recently. He's saved every card anyone has ever given to him. He doesn't keep them all in one place so it's like Christmas for him when he looks in a drawer and finds cards he stashed away. He found one the other day that is so personal (it was not from me) that I can't share what was written but I can you tell that it was touching. He left it on the counter for me to read and I cried.
My grandmother died about 4 years ago, or was it 5? When I traveled to her home-town the following year, my aunt handed me a ziploc bag of items my grandmother had kept in her drawer. Among those treasures were letters and photos I had mailed to her throughout my life. I was surprised to receive them back. The first time I opened the ziploc bag, I had to close it quickly. It was so painful. It's still painful to this day.
Listen up. If you are not sending hand-written letters to people you love, they won't have anything tangible to hold in their hands should you leave this earth before them. When I see my grandmother's hand-writing on a letter she wrote to me, it's like time travel. I can picture her sitting at her dining room table with her white-lined writing tablet, an envelope and a stamp. She always wrote two pages and her letter always included a weather report. I miss her very much.
To my friends who took the time to write me recently, there is no gift I would treasure more than your letters. I truly mean that.
love, susan
The other day my friend Jane wrote on her blog about how much she loves house plants. I used to love houseplants but when I lived in Arizona I didn't keep any because we lived in a small space and, quite frankly, I didn't want one more thing to take care of. I still don't want another thing to care of. Read: less is more. However, I do have this sturdy little ivy. It started out as two leaves coming up through a crack in the driveway near the garage door. I spotted it out of the corner of my eye and thought, "now there's a survivor!". It was a year ago in the heat of summer. I pulled it out and showed it to Gene. He made me promise I wouldn't plant it anywhere on the property. Ivy really takes over and can be very hard to get rid of. So I stuck it in this "garage sale special" ceramic pot and forgot about it. I water it maybe once a month. I figure if it survived out there by the garage in the dry heat of summer, it should feel lucky to get a sip of H2O when I get around to it. I move it occasionally from my bathroom to my office. I can live with one houseplant as long as it does not get to be high maintenance.
