Freedom Letters

Mail call! Let's see what came today (sad when you are cooped up and one of the big highlight's of your day is when the mail arrives!). Wow - 2 postcards from a friend vacationing in Ohio, a card and letter from Sissie in Illinois, and a card from the Library where I work! Jackpot!!!!!

I get lots of cards from people. Sometimes they arrive in my mail slot in the hallway outside my door. Sometimes they arrive in my email box and entertain me with animation, games and music. Each one is a gift of lightness to help me through dreary days. I am thankful that so many people take the time to send their good thoughts, wishes, and prayers in my direction. It makes a huge difference.

During my bout with rectal cancer, I started hanging the cards people sent on the wall and ended up plastering the entire living room and dining room. Every day it reminded me that I have lots of love and support. This time I have been stacking them on my piano, watching the pile grow, sometimes picking them up to reread and enjoy.

Today I curled up in the rocking chair with the precious missives and started with the postcards. The pictures whisked my straight out of my tiny box prison into the wide world of summer campgrounds with pavilions, lakes, gift shops, boats, auditoriums, concerts - for a moment I remembered being at Chautauqua with the Oratorio Society, singing Carmina Burana of a summer's evening. It was a great escape.

Then I picked up Sissie's card with the picture of a white polar bear on the cover. Inside it said, "Bear hug comin' at ya!" It was as if she had wrapped her arms around me in a big old hug, just to say hang in there and that I am not alone. She enclosed a juicy letter full of the details of her summer activities, and once again I was released from my stuffy confinement to freely follow her as she prepared a special garden in honor of a neighbor who passed away from cancer, a neighbor who loved butterflies, so Sissie is planting the kinds of flowers and plants that will attract butterflies, and including a bench where people can sit and take it all in. What a wonderful thing to do!

Then I opened the cheery yellow floral card from all my friends and colleagues at the Library. As I read each personal message, the tears began to flow. They have not forgotten about me though I only "see" them via speakerphone. They pray for me each day and send encouragement. You are loved, you are loved, you are loved every line sang out.

I sat for nearly an hour hugging the wonderful letters and rocking and crying and knowing - really knowing - that this siege will end and I will burst out of this jail and back to life. The letters brought a freedom I had not yet experienced, a joy I am delighted to discover.

I can no longer leave these precious postings in a pile on the piano. I will hang them up over the desk and drink them in every day, hang them so I can open them to read the names, remember the jokes, enjoy the beauty of the graphics. Yes, letters are leaves of joy floating down in the midst of sadness to bring light and refreshment. Letters are good!