Have you ever wondered what happened to an old friend after they moved away? Or perhaps due to an illness or accident, you have lost track of them? Well I have been looking for a girl that grew up a couple of doors away from me for years. She lost her mothe
r due to a brain tumor when we were in Junior High. Her dad, who was a pilot for United Airlines, remarried a lovely lady. Soon they moved away and I was never able to say goodbye or how much I loved being a friend.
Well all of us need to reconnect with those we hold dear. I am in the process of doing that this week. I have three people who I always enjoyed and for one reason or another, I lost them. One I connected with last weekend by phone. She is older than I am and I owed her a letter. Instead I called and reconnected in a personal 45 minute call. It felt good hearing her voice. She is unable to write well and has a caregiver so life has gotten increasingly difficult.
The other two people both moved away from the area. When I didn’t get Christmas cards, I figured something was wrong. I was able to get their addresses and letters are already written. I am delighted to try and reconnect with them both.
Letter writing is an art form. There was an elderly Mission Priest I once knew well after he came to Hartland, Illinois for a week long Mission. We never lost touch. He wrote me every couple of weeks as he traveled up and down the California coast ministering to the parishes without a Pastor. In the process of communicating with him, I learned how a good conversationalist can indeed carry over into becoming a good writer. He was artful in his wording. He had great insight on the societal changes in our United States from being with a crossover of people. When I received word of his death, I was saddened. He was an old fashioned Jesuit* with a deep spirituality. Whether you agree with everything he said, he was still someone you truly enjoyed hearing.
Communication is so much more than words. It is a style of using language. It is taking in the non verbal expression and sighs. In letters we are not privileged to see expressions. The personality comes through the writing style. Is it readable or like a doctors prescription? Recently a friend was disturbed that her children were not learning cursive* writing. Years ago we learned the Palmer Writing method. At another school I taught in the Zaner Boser method was taught. Both are beautiful and seem to have been lost. Parents can also pass those skills on to their children. It is so classy to be able to write well and legibly.
My father had a very clear writing style. He was a machinist and took pride in clear blueprints. He loved to “doodle”. Mom could have been a penmanship professor; her writing was beautiful. Each had a distinctive signature and beautiful flow to their writing. When I come across something they wrote or a recipe of mom’s, I find myself instantly reconnected to them. They died in the early 80’s, but I feel their spirit in their writing.
So I leave you with a challenge. Is there someone you need to connect with today? Are you able to contact them in a personal way? Are you on social media, but need to be more “in person” with a long lost cousin or friend? Enjoy the day as we enter into Fall weather. Peace and “Delight in Living!”