Hello,

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, ate grandly and wrote and wrote and wrote—good stuff. I did a lot of writing and I’m getting it done to my liking. I- as I do much of the time - was thinking about writing (though the key is doing it) and thought how much of it we really do and the different forms it takes. I start off my day writing out pages of my own work if I’m lucky or at least notes for a story or for a new idea.

From there I usually write notes to my children’s teachers, a line of two on their homework to let the teacher know I’m paying attention too or to comment on something the teacher sent me—those teachers send home a lot of information. Then at the office I write e-mails, more than I thought I did and for a number of reasons: one, because I seem to communicate better in writing than I do speaking to someone over the phone. Two, writing out something another person can read seems to me to clear up any beginning confusion; it’s in writing so quote me on it. Third, writing out a message is easier, cleaner; colder maybe but cleaner. And fourth, you can write out something beautiful, make something easier for the reader to take when its written out, you can pour your heart out in your writing something that sometimes cannot be easy to do over that instrument, the phone.

In the evening I write notes to my husband and those are my favorite. Writing to someone you love, even like a lot is special and I think it has always been since the birth of the printed word. How many times have reading the love letters of others: Catharine of Aragon to Henry VIII; Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine; Theodore Roosevelt Jr. to Bunny (his second wife); F. Scott Fitzgerald to Zelda and Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan make us realize that only through the written word can the feelings and thoughts in the heart be expressed for all the world to see and rejoice in.

Writing is a constant isn't it? It can’t be avoided; shouldn’t be avoided, we can’t live without writing, putting all we want to do, need to be, want to be, who we love, what we love; the way we live; all of it, in to words. I know I can’t live without putting something into words everyday and I don’t think you can either.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori