Letters, we get letters! When I got home from work today, in the dark, carrying four plastic shopping bags on one arm, and juggling my purse and lunch bag in the other, I jabbed the mailbox open with one elbow, grabbed the mail, tucked it under my arm and tripped through the front door. Feeling the urgency of that 5:00 cup of coffee, I almost didn't take the time to look at the mail. But when I threw it on the table, the first upright envelope had the familiar handwriting of my cousin. I have been waiting for this letter for about six months. I tore open the envelope and carefully unfolded the single yellow legal page crammed front and back with his combination of cursive and printing, blue ink, familiar style. We have had quite a correspondence going for the past several years, often exchanging letters weekly. I have them all saved, in a box, in their envelopes. Life got busy for me, although it rarely changes for him, and slowly the weeks became months, and for a reason that I know very well, he has not answered many of my last letters. He apologized for that, but I know that for him there has been little joy and little reason to seek the door to happiness which opens out, even if that door doesn't really let you out of anything but your mind. But for me today, his letter, that I can fold and unfold, read and re-read,was my moment of joy, and I hope for him it was the beginning of rediscovering joy. Gotta go, I owe my cousin a letter!
1 comments:
I miss getting letters in the mail. Lauren and I had talked one time of sending letters to each other but we never got around to it. Maybe that will be a new goal for me..try to sit and write a letter and actually send it.
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