Penmanship is a bit of a lost art.  I have the good fortune of being in possession of an autograph book that belonged to my grandmother (Circa 1876).  The well-aged pages hold beautifully written sentiments from long ago.  I love to gently stroll through the fragile pages to catch glimpses of a bygone time.  One of the standout qualities of this little book is the lovely script in which it was written, each more beautiful than the last.  Clearly people took great pride in the presentation of their written communication.  So many curls and swirls that some were hard to read, though the pencil lead used stood up very well against the test of time, especially given it is nearly 150 years old.  With all of the required testing these days, the expectation of elegant penmanship has fallen by the wayside, along with teaching cursive for that matter.  It probably doesn’t help that everyone can type or text information rather than writing it.  How often do you really get handwritten correspondence?  Except for my mother in law, it is almost nonexistent for me. 

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

Published - March 19, 2025

Brick by Brick

New Terrain, Like the Grand Canyon

Crossroads

Letting go of someone you care about is never easy.  This could be someone you have loved deeply, with whom you have shared a lifetime of memories and experiences.  This could be a valued friend from a previous point in time whose precious memory and impact on your life never dulled, but by the time you tried to bridge the chasm that often accompanies time and distance, it was too late.  It could be someone relatively new to your life with whom you felt a powerful connection, but time led to a redefining of boundaries which sadly caused permanent damage to the relationship. It might be a relative that chose to disassociate from the family following the loss of a shared loved one.  It could even be someone you met in passing at the nail salon who you immediately bonded with, confident that this was the beginning of a lasting friendship only to have that fizzle before starting.

I have always enjoyed writing, not so much the scientific writing or reference writing required in college, but creative writing and writing in order to share my personal spin on things, now that motivates me  I tried my hand at basic journalism in high school but I did not have much confidence in myself or my abilities at that point, and pretty much just took up space in the classroom.  Over the years, I have dabbled with writing poetry, songs, short stories, skits, children’s books but nothing really felt right.  Still, do I love to write.  I tried journaling, but my handwriting was so piss-poor, that even I couldn’t read it well enough afterwards to want to go back to revisit it.  Notebooks, therefore, are not really my friends beyond jotting down quick thoughts or grocery lists.  With the invention of the smartphone came the lovely app called notepad. This has become a loyal and trusted friend.  Especially after discovering that it followed me with each new phone purchase/upgrade.  Joy!  I do my best writing directly on my laptop, because then I don’t have to cut and paste it, email it to myself, save it to my computer, reformat it, etc. but the laptop is not always with me.  So, notebooks and notepads still prevail but, I digress.  The point is that I love to write and I have much that I want to share with others.  I also find writing to be cathartic for me in my personal journey of life.  For these reasons, I have decided to start a blog and see where the path leads.  If you are reading this introductory paragraph right now, I would like to take a moment to thank you for joining me in this expedition and to ask for your patience as this is all uncharted territory for me.