Dear Grandma - Volume 1

Dear Grandma,

Somehow my first draft didn't save, so here we meet again!

I found your letters--ones I believed were lost forever--this afternoon, and what a time I have had visiting with you again.  I was crying so hard for awhile that I checked the mirror to see how my mascara was holding up.  Far better than I expected.

There are no words to express how much I miss you and yet, how powerfully I feel your presence in the pages of those letters and cards.

I wish I'd done a better job of believing you when you wrote (repeatedly) about me being a writer. You were right. I am!

I haven't been writing much and it's been weighing on me, but I'm making sense of my life in such new, fresh ways, and I am beginning to understand the benefits of what feels like unproductive times.

I am listening to Patsy Cline's greatest hits as I write to you. We rewound the cassette tape for repeatedly for Crazy and Walking at Midnight. We should have listened to her whole album! She's good.

If you were here, these are the things we'd be discussing these days:

• how awesome your great-granddaughter is
• Sarah Bessey's new book Out of Sorts
• Astrid & Derrick and how to write her breakdown and her rebirth
• Parks & Recreation and Hamilton - The Musical
• What I spoke about at church today
• The colossal mess that is my backyard and what the h@#& I should do with it
• My improvements in the kitchen
• My trip to Home Depot and fixing my closet door solo yesterday
• How grateful I am to have a handy dad (and grandpas) who taught me how to use tools when I was growing up
• The sycamore tree swing in the backyard at Steeleville 
• The flag pole at Steeleville too
• Mathilda
• Yoga
• The Washington Post Presidential Podcast
• Rob Bell

That should tide us over for awhile, don't you think?

I've got to find a frame for this Easter Time card you sent me where you wrote: "Such joy your collection of writing are giving me daily as I re-read them and 'think them thru.' You must always find time to write even though, now that  your every minute is so filled. Tuck your thoughts and ideas in your heart--then at the right time, they'll nudge you to add them to your collection!"

I have to believe that we really are having these conversations in our hearts. That's where you are every single day of my life. I feel your love ooze out of every line you wrote me. Thank you for lavishing me with your grammie-love.

It is an honor and privilege to be your granddaughter.

Love, Love until my next post,

Julie