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Although I adored words as a kid it was only upon starting a journal in my teen years that writing took a hold of me.
I spend my days doing vocational & technical writing but life writing remains my secret pleasure.
You would think that teaching life story writing would mean that I do a fair bit of it myself. But I don’t.
The global slowdown has been a godsend to introverts like me.
One beautiful thing I’ve found unfold is having more space to return to writing.
Around the age of 14, I met Catrina.
It’s said that people don’t often recall what you say but they always remember how you made them feel.
Catrina made me feel seen and valued. We shared a love of literature and seeing life through a quirky lens, laughing easily and often.
Checking the mail one day I discovered a handwritten letter she had written to me. Words had always been my muse but the act of writing wasn’t something I had done until I responded to that first letter.
We never exchanged these letters during our walks, we just planted them in one another’s mailboxes.
Hers were written in colourful handwriting with girly insignias and sprayed with puffs of perfume. Mine included rambling doodles and eccentric elements reminiscent of E.E Cummings.
I would never again have an opposite-sex relationship that wasn’t mediated by digital technology. Letters would go the way of typewriters as the art form of letter exchanges dissipated from the culture.
While verbal conversation flowed steadily enough, our most intelligent, probing and interesting banter found its way through written words.
In time our lives took different tangents but I’ll always be grateful for Catrina showing me the truth of John Donne’s assertion that “More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”
I spend my days doing vocational & technical writing but life writing remains my secret pleasure.
You would think that teaching life story writing would mean that I do a fair bit of it myself. But I don’t.
The global slowdown has been a godsend to introverts like me.
One beautiful thing I’ve found unfold is having more space to return to writing.
Around the age of 14, I met Catrina.
It’s said that people don’t often recall what you say but they always remember how you made them feel.
Catrina made me feel seen and valued. We shared a love of literature and seeing life through a quirky lens, laughing easily and often.
Checking the mail one day I discovered a handwritten letter she had written to me. Words had always been my muse but the act of writing wasn’t something I had done until I responded to that first letter.
We never exchanged these letters during our walks, we just planted them in one another’s mailboxes.
Hers were written in colourful handwriting with girly insignias and sprayed with puffs of perfume. Mine included rambling doodles and eccentric elements reminiscent of E.E Cummings.
I would never again have an opposite-sex relationship that wasn’t mediated by digital technology. Letters would go the way of typewriters as the art form of letter exchanges dissipated from the culture.
While verbal conversation flowed steadily enough, our most intelligent, probing and interesting banter found its way through written words.
In time our lives took different tangents but I’ll always be grateful for Catrina showing me the truth of John Donne’s assertion that “More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”