The love letter. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to receive a love letter? I would! I would!
When a person takes the time to write down their feelings, it speaks to our core. That someone took precious time to pen them rather than just careless words quickly spoken they might not have thought much about. Time and thought—even just a little—goes into the act of writing. It’s one more step that makes words more purposeful, more powerful, more meaningful.
Words written down can also be revisited and enjoyed over and over. Savored for years to come. Spoken words can easily—and often—be remembered wrong or forgotten altogether.
A love letter can be between sweethearts, parent and child, friends, children. The Bible is one big love letter from God to all of us.
Strangely, the word love—or even words of affection—doesn’t even have to be in the letter for it to be a love letter. My friend Suzanne recently posted a picture of a cat belt on my FB Mary Davis READERS group. When your lap is full of cat, the belt keeps the cat in place when you stand up. So cool! I don’t know that Buffy would tolerate that in her old age. She’s almost seventeen. Maybe if she were trained from a kitten, it would be all right.
Suzanne knows I love cats, and Buffy often tries to get on my lap when I’m in a video critique group session with her. There isn’t room for both Buffy and my laptop, but she tries anyway. So for Suzanne to post that to my group shows her love for me. Instead of just telling me about it (which she did), she took the time to do something about it. That is a form of a modern-day love letter. Thank you, Suzanne!
In THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT, Isabelle receives love letters from a secret admirer. The first one is an old pedestrian poem we all roll our eyes over today and make fun of.
“The rose is red,
The violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet,
And so are you.”
But Isabelle gives an insight I’d never thought of before.
“It’s not about the poem or even if it’s any good, but the thoughtfulness of it. Someone I don’t know thought enough to secret this onto my bicycle. There’s something romantic and enticing about that.”…
…“If you bothered to think about the poem for even a minute, you would know it’s not about the color of the rose. It’s about the truth of the statement. Not one. Not two. But three true statements to validate and give extra weight to the fourth. The important one.”
He squinted at her. “You got all that out of those four little lines?”
“I did. And, it’s not the words themselves, but the fact some gallant man thought to pen them and deliver them is what makes them special.”
I love it when my characters are smarter then me.
How do I love thee?
Let me write that down so you know I mean it.
Mary Davis
MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She is the author of The Widow’s Plight (Book 1 in the Quilting Circle series), “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, “Holly & Ivy” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, The Prodigal Daughters series from Love Inspired, and Newlywed Games. Coming in 2019, The Daughter’s Predicament (Book 2 in the Quilting Circle series) and “Bygones” in Thimbles and Threads. She’s a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren.
Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub
Phyllis
Mary Davis