A Letter to Sam: A Ten Minute Writing Exercise

This ten minute exercise, from Friday’s writing group,  was to write a letter to anyone, living, fictional or dead, that was not to be sent. (There were no instructions about putting it on a blog site.)

Here goes!:

A Letter to Sam

Dear Sam,

I have no idea who you are or why I am writing this letter to you. I suppose it’s because I saw you from a distance and really wanted to approach you with my concerns. The distance was from my seat in the conference hall to where you stood at the podium. You were and probably still are extremely good looking and so well spoken that my attention was focused on your face and your words. I was at the conference with my colleagues to learn about the gizmos and sprockets that run the machine you were selling to our company. However, your brilliance and stunning beauty are all I can remember. There seemed to be a glow around you with each word you spoke. Did I learn anything that day? Not about sprockets and gizmos, I can assure you. I did learn that this old maid still has an interest in the opposite sex. And all of the possibilities in a world I have long since abandoned. I also know that sending this letter to you would be absolutely disastrous. Maybe only in my own mind, as your secretary would probably just throw it out before even opening it. I’m afraid my employer paid too much for me to attend this function.

Yours truly,

An ardent admirer.

“Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals the details for itself.”

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Author's Note: the edits that I made included putting the title above the Letter to Sam and one comma in the body of the letter. Because it was a 10 minute writing exercise, I chose not to make another changes. Actually, did see any!      January 18, 2024

A Missed Opportunity - Writer's Ink April Assignment

Last month, when this topic was suggested, I instantly recalled a missed opportunity and knew I would write about it today. I’ve spent most of my time this morning, searching for the piece of paper that was so exciting to get in the mail that year. I’ve searched unsuccessfully through two file drawers, old diaries and even a couple of photo albums and am quite certain I’ve thrown it out as a memory I wish to forget, but that has never left me.

~~~~~

I was living in Texas at the time, in a rancher with the mail box at the end of the sidewalk. Seeing the red flag raised, I had no idea what opportunity awaited me in the mail. Probably jumbled with bills and junk mail. I could have tossed it in the trash, but always opened mail from the United Nations. This bit of mail arrived sometime in 1996, I think. Obviously, I didn’t find the paper I was looking for this morning, or I would be clear about the date. 

The opportunity, in the form of an invitation from the Ambassador’s Circle of the United Nations Association, was to go on a trip to South Africa. It fit the dreams of a child to follow in the footsteps of the many speakers heard in church groups. It fit the dreams of the young adult that began nurses training with the desire to join CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) and participate in nursing volunteer work in other nations. And it fit, at the time, my present career move of working in Chemical Dependency Nursing. There had been many things, not to mention my own naiveté, that pushed those dreams to the back of the bus. But there it was, in black and white with blue U.N. logo at the top of the page. An opportunity to participate in a nursing expedition to sail across the water to Johannesburg, South Africa as a Chemical Dependency nurse as part of a United Nations program.

My head and heart swelled with excitement and pride. Once my excitement subsided just a bit, my mind started clicking off all the things that would be necessary to complete. But first things first. I contacted my sons and my siblings telling them of my exciting news. Some of them may remember. I had been in Texas for not quite 10 years, had a position on a Chemical Dependency Unit and was attending Texas Tech University where I acquired a Minor in Substance Abuse. Granted a place in an Honours Seminar, this invitation was just one more step in this path that had seemed so perfectly laid out for me. The possibilities seemed endless. 

What prevented me from pursuing this new and exciting goal? $5000.00. Five thousand dollars at a time when there was no extra, and debts loomed large. That was the cost of this invitation to step into so many parts of my dream. In today’s world, I would be frightened that the whole thing was a scam to separate me from my money. I do know I corresponded with them several times to develop further a check list of their requirements. I finally had to say ‘No thank you’ with an extremely heavy heart. I have learned with great difficulty to plant my feet firmly, to measure my steps carefully and to accept the opportunities that are do-able for me. 

“There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.”

~Kazoo Ishiguro

Purposeful Possibilities

To create a mess creates possibilities. Birds nests look pretty messy but if you look carefully ~ twigs, leaves and bits of string weave, twist and wrap around to make a feather and fluff lined home for new life to be born. Life to grow new wings and learn to fly.

“...mess is the material from which life and creativity are built…”

~ Ralph D. Stacy

Urban Legend in the Park

An urban legend
draped on a branch
slowly spins 
in cool afternoon breeze
out of place where
crows rasp and caw
gulls scream and cry
chickadees chirp and twitter
spring’s possibilities
are all around, while
in greening buds and pink blossoms,
songbirds troll woody real estate
in this urban reality

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." 

~ William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets

To Be Open

Being open to possibilities, when doors are sealed shut by ego, is a task without parallel.

Being open to possibilities,
when doors and windows are wide open blowing ideas through and through, just makes it drafty.

Being open to possibilities,
requires humility and willingness ~
Willingness to let go and reshape ideas.

“The greatest potential we have for opening

 our hearts lies in the opening of our minds.”

~ Vironika Tugaleva, the Love Mindset

Wind and Waves ~ 2

I was late
Only five minutes
All the rest had left before me
Guilt, disappointment
Blown away by the cold, wild wind. Washed into the waves frothing, rolling and crashing on the rocks and through seaweed.
Being a lone walker filled with possibilities to see and feel the wind and waves.

“Thou strange piece of wild nature!”

~ Colley Cibber

To Be Fearless

Risks and rewards

Possibilities good and bad

Goals and heart's desires

Listening and sharing

Problem solving

when problems seem insoluble

Going forward

But being afraid to move

In case there's a slippery slope

Watching and waiting for

Risks and rewards

"Risk is the factor of a stratagem measured 

by what man is powerless to control."

~ Mike Norton, White Mountain