catching up on correspondence

Tags

correspondence, letters, photo, photography, post, writing

Ever since most of my bills went digital the clack on the letter flap on my front door is rarely heard. And I think my postman must be getting bored as he doesn’t seem to need to come quite as often as he use to. But when he does, the soft thud of letters falling to the floor make me smile.

With that in mind I decided to catching up on my correspondence and spent most of Sunday evening with a pen in my hand. There is something quite rewarding about writing down your thoughts knowing someone you care about will read them a few days later (sometimes a few days more depending on the speed of the postman). Delayed gratification in the day and age of instant demands.

On a shelf in my study sits an old wooden wine box filled with cards and envelopes I’ve collected, some over years, others only a few weeks old. And part of the joy of picking up my pen and writing to friends is selecting a card that I think they’ll like, one I can see them smile about, maybe even laugh or giggle, when they open up the envelope.

Now that the letters have been written, the envelopes sealed, addressed and stamped, all I need to do is drop them into a letterbox and wait to see if I’ll get a reply.

For some it may seem odd that I enjoy the old-fashioned way of correspondence when a simple click of a mouse can send an email that will be read within seconds of writing it, but for me the enjoyment of a physical letter is much larger than a few virtual lines on screen. After all who has ever stuck a funny email up on their fridge or reread a fb message years after it was sent?

And who knows, maybe my postman will no longer be bored and have a few letters in his bag for me too. I’ll just have to wait and listen for the clack of the flap on my door and the soft thud as letters land on my floor.

a few letters ready to be sent

late birthday treats

Tags

Advent, birthday, celebration, friends, gifts, letters, love, post, surprises

It’s been a week since my birthday but somehow I have been surprised by treats every day since. Some letters in the post and a few stray parcels were just the beginning of my week long celebration.

Last night I spent a evening tucked away behind an inconspicuous black door in the Vintage Cocktail Club, sipping coloured drinks and eating delicious nibbles with four wonderful women I call friends. It was a chat-fllled night with lots of laughter and fun – the perfect way to end a long week.

Today a steady flow of drizzle has been dampening the mood but my neighbour and I spent the afternoon over some delicious cake and coffee, chatting and entertaining her adorable toddler. We even ended up in the park playing in the rain, laughing and enjoying a lovely November afternoon.

There has been something quite wonderful about making my special day last for a while, instead of one big party and a shower of love I’ve had a trickle of gifts and events, every day filled with moments of surprises and that warm hug of joy never quite went away.

But now it seems it’s time to put away my birthday, pack away my cards and let normality return to my every day life. Not for long though, as Sunday is the first of Advent and a month long celebration of my favourite time of year will have arrived at my doorstep.

Looking forward to decorating my tree in a few weeks – I do love all of my shoe decorations

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge- Symbol

Tags

John Donne, letters, photo challenge, photography, photos, quotes, Symbol, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge- Symbol, writing

Symbols are things that stand for something else, sometimes in very obvious ways, sometimes a little more hidden and sometimes only a select few know what it means. And sometimes one symbol can mean very different things for several people.

But no matter where you look we are surrounded by symbols everyday – some of us even wear them as jewellery or have them embedded in our skin in ink.

As a writer, for me, the most important symbols are letters. Each one holds the key to different meanings and when arranged and rearranged they spell out emotions, ideas, instructions, information and stories.

More than kisses, letters mingle souls.

English Poet John Donne (1572-1631)

waiting for the penny to drop

Tags

bills, economy, jacob needleman, jumping from springboards, letters, miscellaneous, money, musings, primal emotions, psychology, random, recession, thoughts

It’s Monday morning and I am impatiently waiting on the postman to wander down my street and not pass my door. I can’t wait to hear him pushing two desperately awaited answers through the letterbox, my ears are straining to here that soft thud of envelopes on the floor.

Sadly I have to admit that my foot tapping inability to wait is not because I am hoping to hear from loved ones but rather unloved ones who owe me money. I know such a mundane topic, but one that seems to often dominate our lives, whether we like it or not. And although it is such a big part of everyday life money is often a taboo subject, something that people keep private. Oddly enough talking about money is considered more vulgar than debating sexual habits, desires and other personal issues.

It doesn’t seem to matter if someone has a purse filled with moths or lives like Dagobert Duck, jumping from springboards into wads of cash, their relationship with money is deeply personal. Interestingly enough a study has shown that although how you are raised with money influences how you deal with spending or saving your pennies people are born scrooges or squanderer. And your emotional state also plays its role on your purse strings. Happy, stable people feel less need to spend than those who are upset or depressed, as if defining your worth and well-being is directly linked to cents and euros.

In our economically challenged time money seems to bring out a lot of primal emotions like fear and anger. But American Philosopher Jacob Needleman argues that with the recession scratching on most peoples doors they will turn towards their internal resources which gives us a chance to redefine the importance of external ones like money. After all when asked most people don’t list money as one of the things that is most important in their lives, family, friends, fulfilling dreams, being a good person all rank higher up and earning millions doesn’t really appear on any bucket lists.

I am not a materialistic person, money is not something that drives me to do, create  or be, but growing up with very little has taught me to appreciate it’s value and understand how having none can stifle you. So I work to live and not the other way around but when bills need to be paid and the red on my account turns a threatening dark crimson my primal emotion is anger towards those who have yet again forgotten to pay me what is owed.

So while I wait for the metaphorical penny to drop through my letter-box I do so because I need to pay my rent and not because it makes me happy. But I am sure a new pair of shoes would.

past, present and future

Tags

black and white, family, future, letters, love, memories, past, photos, present

A lovely, nosy friend of mine told me yesterday that she loved Post (traumatic stress) Syndrome but felt a little let down that she never found out, what was in my two surprise parcels. Some questions that are asked deserve answers and the answer to this one is, hours of escapism and a journey into the past.

As a free-lance writer I do reviews every now and then and for some reason a lovely, small Irish publishing house mailed me a book to read, unprompted and happily received. A rainy afternoon in the near future (in Dublin they are always near) is already saved.

The smaller package was the bigger surprise, filled with something I never expected to own, yet I was thrilled to have. My aunt who lives up North sent me some old black and white photos of my father and his family, ones I have never seen before. As they fluttered out of the padded envelope my eyes grew wide, my heart made a tiny quiver and a little tear appeared in the corner of my eye to enjoy the view. My father died quite suddenly last year and as my parents have been divorced since I was ten I do not know very much about him growing up in Northern Ireland. The photos show a side of my family tree that I have yet to discover, tickets into the past for a trip I never thought I’d take.

I have always thought that my father in his twenties had a striking resemblance to Harold Lloyd (a black and white comic actor) and the new photo evidence only supports this. But the two photos that caught my eye are of my grandmother and great grandmother. One is from the 1930’s the other from the 1950’s.  What I find so interesting is that they are wearing such similar clothes (a long, six buttoned, knee-length coat with one large rever) and holding themselves in such a similar way. Hands by their side, face on to the camera, straight back and a small fixed smile. And an another odd similarity is that the men by their sides are not their husbands. Labeled as uncle and great-uncle on the back of the photo I can only presume that these more casual looking men (one is wearing flamboyantly patterned socks and knickerbockers) are their brothers, as both women were widowed early.

So, as I wander down a memory-lane that should be mine but is new to me, I can’t help but think about all the memories I keep in boxes: photos, clippings and keepsakes all jumbled up together and only important to me. We all know how pictures, sounds and even smells trigger thoughts of special times, places and people from our pasts and we need these prompts to keep our memories alive, form a puzzle of our history into its very own unique picture. So while adding these new, old photos into the kaleidoscope of my life, I am grateful for this unexpected present of the past that I’ll even enjoy in the future.

Photos and memories

POST (traumatic stress) Syndrome

Tags

enjoyment, family, freinds, friendship, letters, love, post, post-cards, smile, stress, trauma, writing

My day started with a lovely surprise, waiting for me on the mat below my letter box sat two unexpected  packages and a card. They were sitting there patiently, waiting for me to find and retrieve them.

Like most people, I love receiving letters, parcels, cards anything that isn’t a bill and when I saw the small little pile of goodies a big grin spread across my face, my heart skipped a beat in anticipation and the day was off to a great start.

Most days I don’t have any post at all, or it’s a sad looking white envelope with a coloured logo in the corner signaling me another menacing bill has found its way into my home. Not a joyous occasion and sometimes even a little frightening, traumatic even. But because I can go days on end with the postman ignoring my lonely little letter box  I often wonder, when watching American sitcoms, how they always seem to have piles of post ready for them to flick trough. Where do all these letters come from? In the day and age of technology most people write emails and texts, so shouldn’t we be hearing their mobile phones “ping” in irregular intervals, interrupting the conversations and see them checking their “inbox” on their laptops and smartphones?

As much as I enjoy a long email or a text from a friend nothing can beat the feeling of receiving a real letter. One that someone actually took the time  to sit down and write, pen and paper in hand, and then even found a moment to wander down to the post and send it.  The fact that they bought a stamp is an additional small sign of how they value you.

Sadly writing letters is a dying art-form (along with good spelling and “popping in for a cuppa”) and I admit I am just as guilty as most. However I do take the time every now and then and send friends and family a little envelope of love or a funny card I saw that made me think of them. A little token that out of sight is not out of mind.

I also enjoy the fact that letters take all the stress out of communication, there is no expectations for you to reply at once as everyone knows letters take a few days to travel. Email and texts have an inbuilt stress factor, we are expected to answer straight away, everything is urgent, nothing can wait and so your stress-levels rise with each ping or buzz alerting you to the fact that someone, somewhere is needing an answer RIGHT NOW.

It really is unsurprising that studies have shown that as a positive psychology intervention, gratitude letters “work” 99% of the time. A gratitude letter is a hand-written note you send to someone who you want to thank or even just tell that you love them, it can be a friend, family or even a mentor or teacher. And not only do the recipients enjoy them, feel touched and treasure these letters of love but the person who writes them feels good about themselves as expressing what you feel evokes positive feelings and thoughts.

Of course many of us send postcards from trips away or the occasional greeting card to random occasions, but how many of us actually write more than the few standard sentences?  So the next time you think of a friend why not take a pen, pencil or even crayon and write down a few words of love on  a piece of paper and send it to them. After all who keeps a box full of old emails under their bed that they re-read and enjoy for many, many years?

And who knows maybe one day those bills, with the traumatic, ever-rising payment demands tucked away inside your letter box may be kept company by a letter filled of love just for you.

http://lucygracesmom.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/resurrect-the-lost-art-of-letter-writing/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-good-life/200912/does-anyone-write-letters-anymore