Thursday, March 29, 2012

A Cup of Cold Water


Can you believe that March is almost over?! And that our letter-writing month is drawing to a close?! I'm wondering how you are doing. I'm suspecting that notes from readers of this blog are now hanging on refrigerators containing blessing and encouragement to those you have loved with your words.

I'd like to encourage you to think of one more type of person you might want to jot a note to. I wrote the following piece a few years ago because it was a powerful childhood memory that I wanted my children to share with me.

When I first wrote it, I couldn't reread it without literally sobbing. It is incredible how such a simple act of kindness can have such an emotional impact over 50 years later.
Another incredible thing about it is that when I located Flossie and shared this with her, she told me that she had absolutely no memory of this incident! She had no idea that her hands and a pan of water had poured blessing on me.

I am so grateful that I could let Flossie know what a gift she had been to me as a child.

Is there someone in your life--in the distant past or currently--you'd like to send a note of thanks to? Someone who may be completely unaware that they had offered you a cold cup of water? It doesn't have to be a written account like mine, just a note saying a simple thank you.

I call this "To the Least of These"--it may spark some ideas for you.



Sometimes memories can be kind; the passing of time can soften the ragged edges of pain. Sometimes that softening can turn the pain into a beautiful thing, like a cup of cold water for a thirsty child.

The year was 1957 and the grass was just starting to grow over my father’s grave. With the stop of my father’s heartbeat, my mother had been thrust violently into the role of breadwinner, and during that summer of my tenth year, she sat at a desk miles away from home working on a teaching degree. For those six weeks, my two teen-aged sisters were left to care for my younger sister and me. In their bobby socks and pony tails, they spent their summer feeding us from cupboards that were too often bare, hanging our clothes on the line to dry, and keeping us safe at night.

In the afternoon of the day of my memory, I was taken to the doctor’s office with a dangerously infected toenail. Dr. Barrall bent his head, with its blazing red hair, over my foot, injected a shot of Novocain into my big toe, and proceeded to rip off the nail. My screams shot down the hallway and filled the waiting room.

That evening I lay alone in my rumpled bed. There were no pictures on the walls of my bedroom; there were no curtains at the window to sway in the breeze. This was the house we had escaped to after our house on Main Street had been taken away from us, after my father had sat down in the living room chair and died.

With my leg stretched out in front of me, I watched the stain of red seeping through the fat wad of gauze around my toe. The aching pain moved up my leg, and I sobbed. I had no mother; I had no father. I felt so very alone, in a house on the edge of town, with no pictures on the walls and no curtains at the window.

My sisters’ friend Flossie had stopped by the house, and the three girls were whispering nervously in another room. They should have been giggling together, like teenagers do on hot July evenings, but instead they were responsible for a wailing, inconsolable child.

Quietly, Flossie stepped into my room carrying a pan of cool water and a wash cloth. She sat down on the edge of my bed and placed the pan on the nightstand. As she reached into the pan to saturate the cloth, she started cooing soft and soothing words.

I can still see her hands—dipping the cloth in the pan, wringing out the water, wiping my face, my damp forehead, my swollen eyes. Her hands—dipping the cloth in the water, wringing it out, wiping my face, my forehead, my eyes. Making soft, soothing sounds.

My sobs stopped, my body relaxed, and now it was just the murmuring of Flossie’s voice, the swishing of the water, the cool cloth to my face.

A gentle grace-filled quiet entered the room—and I slept.


Monday, March 26, 2012

Please Mr. Postman



This should get your pen moving across the page today! Then all you need to do is add a stamp!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Guilt, be gone!


Photobucket

Historian Kerby Miller made a thought-provoking comment in an article I found in the Oct. 9, 2011, Press & Sun-Bulletin called  The Lost Art of the Letter

" Any subject that relies on correspondence - culture, manners, husbands and wives, lovers, friends, brothers, historical business, political history - could suffer a loss with the decline in letter-writing, Miller said.  

"Yet there could be some benefit, he said.

"Many of us used to always feel guilty because we never wrote enough....So maybe all the consequences aren't going to be completely negative. Maybe a vast load of guilt will be lifted from the shoulders of the American people."

I have to admit that too often I do feel a nasty bit of nagging guilt about not writing more. How counter-productive is that?! 

So, lest I have created a frenzy of guilt-induced letter writing, be assured that this blog is not intended to pile a "vast load of guilt" on our shoulders because we don't write enough letters. And, in my opinion, neither should we drop a guilt-bomb on our readers by concluding our letters with comments such as: "Write back soon!" or "Looking forward to hearing from you soon!" That lays an unnecessary burden on our recipients; it's like handing a gift to a friend and then saying, "Now I expect a gift in return."

So, guilt, be gone! Instead, as time and desire allow, let's savor the pleasure of loving our readers by putting pen to paper and adding a stamp.


If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.





Monday, March 19, 2012

The Best Writing Advice Ever Received

Time for my second trip to the post office.


Oh, wait! I didn't have to drive to the post office to mail these letters.
It wasn't raining this time, and I had stocked up on stamps during February prep month, so I could mail my next eight notes and letters from the cute little mailbox next to my front door.

How handy is this?!

Lest you think that I'm encouraging you to make a long list of names and scribble off as many notes as you can to win some sort of a letter-writing prize, be assured that this is neither my personal goal nor my hopes for you my reader.

My son-in-law Wes sent me the link to an article by Donald Miller called The Best Writing Advice I've Ever Received. Donald Miller is an author, and he was actually talking about writing for publication, but what he said is totally applicable to writing letters. When he summed up the best writing advice he had ever received, it included only three words: Love your reader.

Love your reader.

That's what letter-writing is all about.

Garrison Keillor writes (as only he can): "Such a sweet gift--a piece of handmade writing, in an envelope that is not a bill, sitting in our friend's path when she trudges home from a long day spent among wahoos and savages, a day our words will help repair. They don't need to be immortal, just sincere."

Love your reader. With just pen, paper, & a stamp.

 My eight-year-old granddaughter just spent the weekend with me, and she spent a morning writing letters with such pleasure. She put one in a plastic baggie, surrounded it with colored shreds, and hand delivered her gift of love to her aunt; the others she stood on tiptoe and put in the mailbox next to our front door for the mailman to carry away. I have absolute confidence that the three recipients of those letters--with  Karis' name in the return address--will be filled with delight when they receive their unexpected gifts in the mail.



Love your reader.

With just pen, paper, & a stamp.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Dilemma: To Keep--or--To Ditch?



Don't you just hate trying to figure out which cards you shoud keep and which ones you should ditch? Then check out this blog post: What to Do with Old Cards and Letters. Some fun ideas are in store for you.

The author divides her tips into two categories:
1) ideas for all the cards and letters you want to keep
2) ideas for all the cards you want to ditch.

And I guess that about covers it all!


Who wants some FREE cards?
Some beautiful FREE cards, at that!

Free DaySpring Card Organizer
Lovely!

My sister Sharon Briggs told me about DaySpring's offer for free cards and a free card organizer. I was at her house when her box arrived, and the cards that Sharon had chosen were fascinating.
To see pictures and learn the details, click here: Heart Connection Card Club
You get a FREE pack of cards and a FREE card organizer--a $35 value.

There is no obligation to continue after this FREE offer; you can cancel
your membership at any time.
After seeing Sharon's packet, I'm sold.

Friday, March 9, 2012

It's time for a trip to the post office!

Being held accountable through this blog has really motivated me to catch up on long- overdue letters and notes. This is what I  hid under my coat and ran between raindrops to take to the post office last evening:



OK, OK, I have a confession to make: two of those envelopes contain birthday cards to my daughter and granddaughter, and my husband did most of the writing--I just added some verbal kisses and hugs.


And, no, I did not write all nine of those in one evening; they are the fruits of my labors since March LetterWriting Month started.

Some tips I learned from the book The Art of the Handwritten Note, by Margaret Shepherd, continue to help me:

"Write from a Space of Your Own: Set up a note-writing place that includes a chair, worktable or desk, and lamp. Leave everything set up and use it often. Assemble your materials: stationery, pen, address list, scratch paper, pencil, stamps…..If you can’t leave your materials set up, gather them in a drawer or basket to keep them from wandering off when they are not in use." (p. 51)
The combination of a special place plus a ritual is a personal goal I have for this project. And it is proving to be just what the letter-writing doctor ordered. The picture above shows evidence of this.

Shepherd adds: "If you have a special place and a simple ritual, it will help you develop the habit of writing. But if you are good at changing gears during your day, you could try to carry notes with you to make use of those chunks of wasted time when you could write—waiting in the doctor’s office or…sitting around on hold." (p. 52)

A special place,
     a simple ritual,
          pen,
               paper,
                    and a stamp.
If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Just an Old Letter


My grandparents
George and Calla May Hendricks

Just an Old Letter
Nancy G. Hill

I have in my possession several photographs of my maternal grandmother, Calla May Welton Hendricks.  In the pictures she is young and beautiful with her high collar and her dark hair piled on her head.  Since I have no memories of my grandmother, I occasionally study the photos to try to learn something about this woman who was my mother’s mother.  Was she serious?  Or did she have a sense of humor?  Was she hard working?  Or did she tend to be lazy?  Did she enjoy being the mother of two daughters?
My mother couldn’t help me with answers to these questions; she had no memories of her mother either.  Calla Hendricks died of scarlet fever in 1912 when her baby—my mother—was nine months old.

In the summer of 1989, my four sisters and I spent three days helping my mother sort through 77 years of possessions—organizing, making piles, and filling garbage bags for several trips to the village dump.  While my mother was in the kitchen filling the house with smells of freshly-baked cinnamon buns, I was sorting through the papers of Mom’s late sister, Helen.  Suddenly I held in my hand a letter beyond price; it was a letter my mother did not even know existed.  The letter was dated October 4, 1912, the handwriting looked remarkably like my mother’s, and the signature read: Calla. 

We gathered in a circle and wept as we read aloud the words of a healthy young woman who would be dead in less than three months. This was like a window into my grandmother's personality.  The pictures we already possessed took on new meaning.  For the first time in her life, my mother “heard” her mother speak lovingly of her two daughters. 

Did Calla have a sense of humor? You bet!  She was still laughing as she recounted the antics of her two-year old.  Was she lazy or hardworking?  I’ll let you decide:

I put up about 100 quarts of berries and currants and have a lot of pears to do up yet.  Have eight quarts of corn and a lot of jelly. Have been making tomato pickles today but didn’t get it all done.  I picked most of the berries myself.  Wasn’t I smart?

Somehow, even more moving than when she called her two little ones “dears,” was when she wrote, “We all went to the Eddy yesterday.  I got some cloth to make baby some rompers.” [That baby was my mother.]

Those written words caused the unsmiling face in the pictures to burst into life for me.   Now I could see her lovely face--tired from a day of picking berries and chasing babies--bent over the treadle sewing machine.  The flickering light from the kerosene lamp is casting shadows on the walls as Calla makes rompers from the cloth she had carefully chosen for her precious Geraldine. Now I could see those arms, hanging stiffly at her side in the picture, reach out to lift her baby--still warm with sleep--from her crib.

Just a few words breathed life into those photographs, and my grandmother became a real person, not just a stiff face on a glossy piece of paper.  I feel quite certain now that, had she lived, she would have slipped pennies into my chubby little palm after I helped her with the dishes.  Most certainly she would have sent me cards on my birthday, and I suspect that she might have casually mentioned to her friends at the church social that her granddaughter was the sixth grade spelling champion.

One letter, in Calla’s own handwriting.  What price tag can be placed on that?  $100?  $1000?  No thanks—I’ll take the smudged, faded letter written by Calla May Hendricks almost 100 years ago.



 

Monday, March 5, 2012

As Easy as Can Be!


You can't imagine how much time I spent on this one-minute-fifty-two-second video. Honest.
I made it early in February--for prep month--so I could show you a quick and easy way to create beautiful stationery that doesn't need an envelope. 
Finally, here it is--an incredibly easy way to create eye-catching stationery
with 12x12" paper you may already have around the house. 


If you have been following this blog, you know that I love paper. I am partial to Creative Memories paper--in fact, I usually find it irresistible. [Sheepish grin.]
I simply grabbed some of my favorite double-sided 12x12" paper,
cut it in half, folded it into thirds and--voila!
As easy as can be.

You can make approximately one zillion of these just during the commercials of
Monk reruns.

Since the paper is double sided, when the envelope is opened, there is a surprise inside:
 a happy new design!
I use paper that has a more subdued pattern on the inside to make it easier to write the note. If the pattern on the outside is too dark to write on, I just add an address label.
Finally, seal it with a sticker or adhesive of your choice.


Late-breaking news!
I just checked the Creative Memories website,
and for the month of March there is a great sale on paper! 
The website reads: 1 month. 100s of papers.  30% off. 
Yay!
Feel free to contact my friendly consultant http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/sallyday
and she can help you choose appropriate paper for projects like this.

Now, just add a pen and stamp to this paper.

Literally.

If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

It's here! It's here! It's really here!

It's March 1! The long-awaited first day of our very own March Letter-Writing Month!! I spent last evening spreading out and savoring my lovely assortment of note cards and stationery I have been collecting over the past few months. And I carefully finalized my personal goals for this adventure.

Do you want to hear them?

Well then, here are my letter-writing goals for the month of March 2012:

My goal is write two cards or one letter at least five days a week
for the month of March.

Normally that would never happen, but because I have been planning and preparing for this I believe that is a doable goal. Besides that, this blog provides accountability for me, and that's a very good thing. Small smile...

You see, I live a life of noble intentions, but too often the nasty issues of getting easily sidetracked and of procrastination steal my time and energy, and my noble intentions turn into yet another unchecked item on my to-do list.

Don't you just hate that?!

That's why I believe that holding myself accountable through this blog will be a delightful way to reach my goals of sending unexpected word gifts to people I care about.

If you would like to report your goals also--whether it's one letter a week or seven letters a week--leave a comment on this post.

I think it will be fun to applaud each other and send along songs of encouragement to each other during this 31-day challenge.

The following article might be of help too :-)



<><><><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><><><>
Overcoming Procrastination



ACT AFTER YOU PLAN
  • start with a written plan of action to avoid getting distracted
  • keep your plan simple and straightforward
  • start with the one thing you must get done today to feel productive
  • should be a manageable item you can complete in 10-15 minutes
  • break the day up into a number of "action sessions" for other tasks
  • balance the time spent planning with time spent creating or doing
  • avoid over-planning -- another method of procrastination
  • before ending your day, spend 10 minutes reviewing your progress
  • take time to plan your actions for the next day
BE VISION-DIRECTED
  • your tasks should match your values or purpose
  • if not, you will find it hard to summon the energy to tackle them
  • bring each task into congruence with your basic mission
  • if you can't, take it off of your list
BITE-SIZED PIECES
  • don't put any "to-do" on your list that takes more than 30 minutes
  • if it takes longer, it's actually a series of smaller "to-do's"
  • break each step out and list it separately
  • you don't have to tackle all the steps of a project in one sitting
  • spread a large task out over several work sessions
  • you will see greater progress as you check more items off your list
  • you will avoid getting bogged down in one large task or project
DECIDE TO SCHEDULE IT
  • determine how much you can do or tolerate at a time
  • don't push yourself too far or you'll get bored or frustrated
  • plan these project "pieces" into your daily activities
  • set a "completion point" for accomplishing each small task
  • completion points give you an end in sight to look forward to
GOOD ENOUGH IS GOOD ENOUGH
  • don't try to do everything perfectly
  • perfectionism often causes procrastination
  • perfectionists would rather put it off than do an incomplete job
  • rather than perfection, aim for progress
  • any small step toward completion is an accomplishment
JUST DO IT
  • do the worst job (or part of the job) first and get it out of the way
  • once you tackle the part you are dreading, the rest is a breeze
  • stop spending time planning and just jump into doing it
  • set a time limit -- "I'll file papers for 5 minutes"
  • alternate unpleasant jobs with tasks you enjoy
  • delegate out items you can't make yourself do
PLAN AROUND INTERRUPTIONS
  • interruptions tend to occur in identifiable patterns
  • notice when interruptions occur, by whom, and why
  • take steps to prevent those interruptions before they occur
  • if they can't be prevented, learn how to delegate to someone else
  • if they can't be delegated, learn how to delay until you are finished
REMEMBER TO MAKE IT FUN
  • make the project and environment as pleasant as possible
  • play music, open a window, have a cold drink, etc.
  • give yourself the best tools and work space for the project
  • take a few minutes to organize your work space
  • a clean desk allows you to focus without visual distraction
  • it's only a chore if you think of it as a chore
STAYING MOTIVATED
  • find an "accountability partner" to track your progress
  • schedule a regular time to check in with a friend or colleague
  • rewarding your accomplishments encourages productivity
  • give yourself a break, a treat, a nap -- whatever is a reward for you
  • reward every step along the way, not just the end result
  • the bigger the accomplishment, the bigger the reward

Copyright 2000-2009 Ramona Creel

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If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email