I find myself waiting for the mail. New supplies arriving in the form of credit card applications, American Girl Doll catalogs and offers for new gutters. I’ve just discovered that the grocery ads and their colored ink make great tree rings. The newsprint is soft and they use lots of red ink during strawberry season. Red, my favorite.
I received a real live, honest-to-goodness letter in the mail recently from a friend I knew when we lived in Seattle. A real live letter with a stamp and everything! She actually wrote, long-hand, three pages front and back on spiral notebook paper. Her even, straight penmanship brought me right back to mornings in her kitchen drinking hot tea while our babes played in the Tupperware drawers at our feet. Her letter was newsy, full of parenting tidbits and parenting dilemmas. (Like, when is it time for the real story of the Birds and the Bees?) Somehow, a hand written letter elevates the news held therein far beyond that of an email. My real-live three page letter was hand delivered by a person to my very own mailbox. My letter was in my friend’s hand just days before, maybe written on her kitchen counter, maybe on her lap in a waiting room, and now here it is in my hand. From hand, to hand, to hand.
It seems appropriate that I’m going to chop her letter into 3/4” slices and wrap it around itself until it and the envelope are gone, wound up into something new. A transformed memory, a token to our friendship. I might even add some grocery ad red. I’ll call it “Shopping for Tea and Tia”.
I received a real live, honest-to-goodness letter in the mail recently from a friend I knew when we lived in Seattle. A real live letter with a stamp and everything! She actually wrote, long-hand, three pages front and back on spiral notebook paper. Her even, straight penmanship brought me right back to mornings in her kitchen drinking hot tea while our babes played in the Tupperware drawers at our feet. Her letter was newsy, full of parenting tidbits and parenting dilemmas. (Like, when is it time for the real story of the Birds and the Bees?) Somehow, a hand written letter elevates the news held therein far beyond that of an email. My real-live three page letter was hand delivered by a person to my very own mailbox. My letter was in my friend’s hand just days before, maybe written on her kitchen counter, maybe on her lap in a waiting room, and now here it is in my hand. From hand, to hand, to hand.
It seems appropriate that I’m going to chop her letter into 3/4” slices and wrap it around itself until it and the envelope are gone, wound up into something new. A transformed memory, a token to our friendship. I might even add some grocery ad red. I’ll call it “Shopping for Tea and Tia”.
Loved the story, especially since I know the characters. Great insite into the artist thinking and mind. Creative art and use of recyclable materials and connection to the past. xox
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