March 1

February was a lovely month of love letters.

Well, actually, it was a pretty cold and snowy month of love letters.  Crummy weather, made just a little better through the act of bringing a little more love into the world.  Twenty eight letters was an ambitious goal considering my usual energy level most days of the week... So I am ok with the fact that I think I got about 18 letters out into the world, with 3 more awaiting addresses.  Of those, 8 were  to strangers, and were left at gas stations, the gym, grocery store, Walgreens, and on a bench at Wade Oval.  I will never know if they accomplished their mission of brightening someone's day, but I like to think that they found their way into the hands of the people who needed them the most.

The other letters went out to friends and family, about half of those to old friends who I have not seen in years, but who came into my heart when I looked at my bin of stationary.   I've not heard back from most of those yet-- but then, several were only sent out a few days ago as it took a while to track down addresses.

I've had lovely, heart warming responses from the recipients of 5 of my letters, and those have been affirmation enough to convince me to carry on this tradition.

There are so many more people who deserve a letter, who deserve to be told just how amazing they are, just how much I love them.  I've decided  I'm going to keep that stationary right where it is and try to send out a letter or two a month from now on.  So if you've not gotten a letter yet, do not despair. You are in my heart! I am just waiting for the best time to do you justice...

In the meantime....  March has come in like a halfhearted and lazy lion, and it is time for a new thirty days....

At school this month I am studying poetry with my students.  I am making these reluctant little writers of mine create their own poems ( yes, I am a glutton for punishment!).  I figure the least I can do is join them.  So for this month: a poem every day.  I can't promise they'll be good.  But I like the idea of stretching my creativity a bit, giving a nod to some actual writing, beyond Facebook status updates and chronicling the escapades of my children....

At the African Dance and Soul Food Potluck

Drum beats
Pound out the shape
Of community
Collected
Faces of our children
All
Sizes and colors and shapes and
They are so real
They shine
Joy
Gleams out from the dancers
Feet flying
Pounding
Ringing
Twisting and turning
My heart
Into the shape
Of home.