I went to the mailbox after a day of guest-teaching in a junior high social studies classroom and found Hollee’s card. She wrote to me about finding a card that I had sent to her. It was waiting in her mailbox, among a stack of bills… “personal mail amongst the bills is a gift”, she wrote. And today, I feel the same. I am looking down, this very moment, at Tom Thomson’s Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay (1914-1915) and I am happy for this correspondence! As I sat down to write about writing…I picked a few of my favourite cards/notes off of my book shelf to include them in this photograph. I will treasure these always…and there are many others tucked away for safe keeping. After a time, some folk toss out their correspondence…as you might guess, I don’t do this easily. I enjoy, as much, the sentiment or the intention of the note, as the medium for that message. I am grateful for all correspondence.
I frame correspondence, display it and finally, I file it in my Significant Others archives. The letters and cards from my friends and family over so many years, is a narrative about our life journeys…the story of faith, support and friendship. I do not take your choice to send me a note, lightly. I honour that choice, always!