“I wish every envelope enclosed a love letter. It’s this hope that leads me to open strangers’ mail. So you see, I’m a romantic, not an NSA employee.”
Very recently, I helped my gorgeous friend and she of the lustrous hair (this is pure jealousy speaking), Blythe, set up her new blog. I mention this not because I am blowing my own geeky trumpet (toot!) but because, despite having read several of her bits and pieces over time, to see them start to be collected in one place was both amazing and a little humbling.
This is a chick who can write.
Her posts bring a sort of nostalgic lump to the throat of 'oh noooo - I remember that feeling'. You know. That hot, angry flush of bewildering hurt when love goes wrong.
She writes of loss, and learning, and growing up. She uses language which for most of us is hidden somewhere in our hindbrains, and which reads like keyboard angels doing a tango that could possibly see them sent to the dark side - and they won't care.
I think what I love most about what she is doing is this; every time she puts words and beautiful images onto the screen to share with the world, she is giving herself a gift.
Because for someone like the spirit who is Miss B, and indeed, for a total muppet like myself - who is nonetheless an equally enthusiastic woman of letters - putting words out into the ether is something to cherish.
Any time I put fingers to keyboard it is a love letter; not to a person, but to the universe. It doesn't matter if what I am writing is a rant, a fairytale, or an article for a client, as long as I do it with honour and respect, it is a billet-doux to the gods (and goddesses) who gave me the ability to string two words together.
Sometimes it is in fact an actual love letter, but that is another story altogether.
I wrote a little while ago about how good it feels to simply get words onto a page, but this post perhaps is more about what it is like to read another writer's work and the reaction one has to it.
And in some ways perhaps, it is a little bit of said love letter. A love letter to a talent, mixed up with a modicum of professional jealousy, and a wistful 'I wish I'd written that', which both keeps me honest as a writer and encourages me on to bigger and better things.
Which, when it comes down to it, is the best possible state of mind to be in when it comes to creating something wonderful - a spur and a spark.
Once upon a time, in the far off land of -
In the far.
Maybe after I have read just a little bit more of what Miss B has to say. She's just put a new post up, and I want to find out what happens next.
And remind myself of what a blithe spirit means.
