“The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice. Your mind. Your creativity. Your vision. Your story, so write and draw and build and play … and live as only you can.”

March 4, 2025March 6, 2025 carolannmccarthyLeave a comment

These are the words of Ted Kennedy Watson. I met him by way of his book, Guide to Stylish Entertaining. I discovered Ted’s book when visiting the gift shop at The Red Lion Inn, my very favorite country inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Ted owns a retail shop in Seattle, Washington and has a blog, and a love for entertaining as I do. His book is very inspiring but his philosophy has been even more inspiring to me..

I thought about Ted’s words, “Live only as you can”. Do you stay true to your vision no matter what others think of it? I’ve been guilty of doubting my vision, my mission, simply because some people weren’t enthusiastic about it. I suppose I was expecting enthusiasm when I first announced what I was planning to do. But why should I expect anyone to get excited about my vision? They are not me. They have their own likes and dislikes. These things shouldn’t affect my vision at all. It’s certainly helpful when our ideas are met with enthusiasm, but we must not depend on the enthusiasm of others in order to press forward with our own ideas. I realize that now.

I happen to love the art of letter writing. I really, really love it, and I feel terrible that so many modern people are missing out on the pleasure of a letter, and why? I think it’s because people today don’t hear anything about this beautiful art. No one is talking about letters – not the post office or the stationery companies, not movies, magazines, or even my many pen friends who are simply enjoying their letter writing and keeping the fun to themselves. Therefore, most people never hear a word about this art. Out of sight means out of mind and out of mind means dead and gone. I have often lamented, “Somebody should do something about this” and then, as Lily Tomlin said, “I realized I was a somebody.” I realized it was for me to do something. I must be the one to spread the word, to share my joy, and sharing doubles the joy so I’m pretty joyful about now as I proceed with my mission to promote the art of letter writing.

Rachel Carson, the environmentalist wrote, “The subject chooses the author” and I’m quite sure the art of letter writing has chosen me to be its advocate. What subject has chosen you? Of course, when I would mention this, my letter writing mission, to people who had no interest in letters and may never have any interest in letters, I was met with a cool reaction. This dimmed my enthusiasm immensely, but now I realize letter writing has chosen me to be its advocate not these other people. This is a job for me to do and I certainly don’t expect every person to love writing and receiving letters as much as I do, but I’m quite sure there are many who would, and so I will proceed undaunted to spread the word about the lovely art of letter writing. After all, I am Carol Ann, Lady of Letters.

Ted Kennedy Watson inspired me with his quote and I hope sharing my reflections on his words have inspired you to move forward on your mission in life too. Ah life! We’re all in it together and we should encourage each other but even if we get no encouragement from others, we know in our heart what it is that we must do.

Are you writing and building and playing as only you can? Are you sharing your story as I’ve shared mine? The writer, Sark, wrote in her book Succulent Wild Woman, “A story can travel without you and inspire many. The tiniest story in your life can deeply touch another. You cannot know the affect your story might have.”

“Don’t be afraid . It won’t be perfect. The only thing to be afraid of, really, is that it won’t be.”

Stephen Sondheim

“Let your soul be unleashed by writing – letters, keeping a journal, writing whatever is on your mind without editing. You will experience many insights”

February 26, 2025March 6, 2025 carolannmccarthy1 Comment

These words were written by Mary Beth Janssen in her book Rejuvenation and I agree with her thinking wholeheartedly. Do you? Are you a writer? I am. I’m a letter writer. Most people think one must be published in order to call onesself a writer, but this is not true. To be a writer all you must do is write.

Though I’ve been writing letters for years, lots and lots of letters, I never realized I was a writer until one day when I found myself writing letters in a coffee shop when a very distinguised gentleman entered carrying a briefcase. This man took a seat, spread out his papers and made his way to the counter where he intended to order his coffee, but on the way as he passed me he looked down at my papers and asked if I was a writer too. Was I a writer? Of course I was a writer. I’ve written hundreds and hundreds of letters over the last few years. Without a moments hesitation I told him, “Yes. I am a writer!” and that’s the first time I fully realized it myself.

I love to write and I especially love to write by hand. I write one letter with my first cup of coffee each morning and then later in the day, when I need a break, I’ll write another letter. If after I’ve accomplished a few things I may give myself a treat and write yet another letter or if not that, I may just write a blog post. Yes, I love to write. Maybe you do too.

Many insights, memories, creative ideas and interesting thoughts will come to me as I write just as Mary Beth Janssen stated in her book, but for me, a letter writer, the inspiration for these thoughts comes from my letter friends. You see, when I am about to answer a letter I usually have nothing particular on my mind, but as I read my friend’s letter it ignites my thoughts. Having a great many interesting letter friends who have a great many different backgrounds and interests provides me with a rich array of subjects to ponder and respond to. I never know what topic of conversation will pop up until I begin rereading a letter.

This makes me think of something the Irish American novelist, Flannery O’Connor, once said. She said, “I don’t know what I think until I see what I write”. Well, I don’t know what I’ll be thinking and writing until I reread the letter I’m answering. It’s so fun and exciting. Really. It makes me feel as I did when running for college homecoming queen and being asked questions I had to respond to “on the spot”, the kind of questions Miss America would have posed to her in competition. You think fast and respond and sometimes you’re surprised by what you say, or in letter writing, by what I’ll write.

Letter writing is such a rich intellectual activity, particularly if you are blessed with richly intelligent letter friends as I am. But all human beings are interesting living all sorts of experiences and as they share those experiences we get a glimpse of their lives. We may only have one life to lead but sharing through letters (and other ways too) grants us the pleasure of experiencing different lives and we return to our own with renewed contentment, rekindled memories and yes, some creative thoughts too.

What people are missing if they’re not letter writers. And that’s why I’m an advocate for the beautiful Art of Letter writing. If you are a letter writer as I am please spread the word. Letter writing is a complete treat, a rich physical, social, intellectual and even a great spiritual activity. If you’re not a letter writer yet, what are you waiting for? Write a letter ! You’ll be glad you did.

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless”

February 25, 2025March 6, 2025 carolannmccarthy1 Comment

These words were spoken by Mother Teresa, that tiny Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in India. She is now considered to be a saint in the Catholic church. After reading Mother Teresa’s thoughts concerning the endless echoes of the words we speak I couldn’t help but relate the idea to the art of letter writing. What an opportunity we have to send kindness into the world with each letter we write.

I have the ritual of writing a letter each morning with my first cup of coffee. What I should ask myself each morning is whose life can I make brighter today? Sure, it’s fun to share what I’ve been up to and some days that can be pretty interesting and entertaining reading, but what does that sort of news really do for my friend? Not much I’m sure. If however I look for opportunities to say “yes” to their ideas or praise them for something they did, or encourage them for something they’re thinking of doing, well, those words could really make a difference in my pen friend’s day.

I’m happy to say I always have lots of wonderful letters waiting to be answered. I’m blessed to have many penfriends. I hope you have many penfriends too. Each letter friend is important to me. I love the one to one conversations and Mother Teresa was also about the one to one. She writes, ” I do not agree with the big way of doing things. What matters is the individual. To get to love a person, we must come into close contact with them. If we wait until we get the numbers then we will be lost in the numbers and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person.

Every time we write a letter we have the opportunity to show someone the love and respect Mother Teresa talks about. In this way letter writing is more than a fun free-time activity. It becomes a ministry of love, a ministry we can carry on all by ourselves, in our comfy slippers, any hour of the day or night. While some people spew hate, fear and retribution around our world we can be working against those nasty efforts by sending out kind words which echoe melodiously all the way up to heaven.

Don’t just write any old kind of letters. Write love letters. What the world needs now more than anything is love sweet love and we are all capable of sending that needed love out into the world one letter at a time. Our penfriends may be so moved by our kindness they’ll start writing their own love letters too and on and on it could go.

Mother Teresa was only one person, and so am I, and so are you, but we just might be able to accomplish more than we think. Mother Teresa’s way was not in big things but in doing small things with great love. We should all try that too. We may never know the full extent of what our kind letters will accomplish until we get to heaven, but once there we’ll have to look up Mother Teresa and tell her how she inspired us. At least I hope she inspired you. She sure inspired me.

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too”

February 23, 2025March 6, 2025 carolannmccarthy1 Comment

So says Anne Frank. Do you agree? Happy people certainly could lighten the mood in a room, but I think for happiness to be transferred from one person to another there must be some sort of personal sharing. It could be a compliment, a warm smile, some understanding words or a bit of welcome good news. Nothing comes from nothing.

Every letter we write has the potential to be a gift of caring and sharing but some letters show we care more than others. If our letter is entirely about us, as interesting as our lives might be, we can’t expect our letter to warm the heart of our pen friend. Share your news, yes, but include kind words about your pen friend. You might be thinking those kind words, but unless your friend is a mind reader it’s best to put those words into print.

When my penfriend shares happy thoughts concerning the times we’ve spent together that makes me feel happy too. You see, it’s a compliment to know someone is thinking of us, to know we matter to others. We feel appreciated and who doesn’t like to feel appreciated? Simply finding a personal letter in our mailbox is a delight, but if that letter includes kind words and compliments, well, it can make someone’s day. We all have the power to lift the spirits of others with every interaction, and every letter we write. As we do this good deed we not only make others happier but we feel better about ourselves too.

You might just write “Smile” on your letter envelope as my friend Andy does. It’s a simple gesture but it really has made me smile. It just might make your friends smile too. Any attempt to share our joy with others is a good thing and it’s good for us because sharing doubles the joy. It really does. Don’t take my word for it. Write a kind letter full of compliments and see how you feel. You just might get a kind letter in return. Your kindness may start a chain of kind events happening all around.

So next time you’d like to make the world a better place just by being you try writing a loving letter to a friend or acquaintance or long lost family member or anyone at all. When we care about others not just about ourselves magic happens. I’ve felt this magic and you will too.

The Art of Creating Stationery

October 23, 2019March 6, 2025 carolannmccarthy6 Comments

There’s the Art of Letter writing and there’s the Art of Handwriting, but there’s also the Art of Creating Stationery. There’s just so much art involved in writing letters. It’s wonderful – so creative. We can find papers for sale to use for the letters we write, but what fun to create our own stationery. We don’t have to be brilliant artists. We just have to let our creative juices flow. There’s inspiration everywhere.

We could create a simple sketch describing where we’re sitting as we write our letter or we can focus on a favorite thing, study it, and try to capture it on paper. I happen to love wildflowers so I’ve created a line of wildflower stationery. Here is one of my designs. I like to write a little information about the flower I’ve drawn around the edges of the paper.

I love writing letters on large sheets of paper because then I’m able to form the letters of my words larger too and this helps make my hand writing more legible and attractive.

But variety is the spice of life so sometimes I create cards 4 by 6 in size and I add blank pages inside so thoughts can flow, not be hampered by a shortage of paper. Who likes a short letter? I tie the pages together creating a sort of booklet.

Sometimes I’ll draw my fountain pen with a hello and a flourish at the top of my letter paper, a few pretend drops of ink to add a fun touch. You see, the most simple ideas can make for interesting papers.

This is a page from the book I wrote, my book of letters, and the art for this particular letter was simply flowers created by pressing my finger into ink pads and pressing the ink onto the paper. You see, you don’t have to be able to draw to create fun designs for your stationery. Creativity comes in lots of forms.

Clipping pictures from children’s books and adding a bit of colored pencil or chalk can create a nice touch for a letter – a little whimsy.

Adding press-on flowers that are purchased can be fun especially if you add a little of your own flourishes around them. There are a lot of great do-dads to attach to letter paper – feathers, dried herbs, flowers, even weeds; You can create collages using articles you find lying around your house – ticket stubs, candy wrappers, colorful designs on packaging, leaves, anything and everything – just arrange them in an artistic manner onto your paper.

One of my standard designs is a simple flower I create on paper.

I create this basic flower design using two ingredients. The stem, leaves and grass are cut from a handmade paper I found in a paper store. The blooms comes from a pack of scrapbook paper containing many sheets of various colorful circles. It’s fun and quite easy to whip up this design and for pennies I can create lots and lots of stationery. The basic design is always the same, but the blooms are different.

A little creativity goes a long way in creating your very own unique stationery. The Art of Letter writing has many components – your handwriting, your stationery and then of course your thoughts – all this shared with others. It’s all Art and it’s all wonderful fun.

So go ahead and buy stationery if you can find it or use plain paper if you like, but don’t miss the chance to exercise your creativity. Dress up that plain paper if the spirit moves you to do so. You’ll amuse yourself and your pen friends will enjoy seeing what you come up with too.

Enjoy!

Letters written from the heart

March 15, 2014February 26, 2025 carolannmccarthy4 Comments

I love letters, personal letters, letters written from the heart. Some of these letters are pure lighthearted fun, but others feel more spiritual, and not necessarily because they speak of faith or religion. Certain letters just simply ooze love and compassion, they are filled with understanding and encouragement. Other letters inspire, share joy or spill compliments over their recipient. All sorts of letters have the power to take us to a spiritual place.

IMG_6924[1] — A letter from Susan early on in her struggle with cancer and chemotherapy

The last letters I wrote to my cousin Susan before her untimely death were such spiritual letters. Susan was in hospice suffering from lung cancer. She was only 60 years old when she fell ill. Over the years, Susan and I had many happy times together. We enjoyed shared outings, family events, and even though we lived in the same city, we corresponded regularly because we both enjoyed The Art of Letter Writing.

We sent love back and forth to each other through our frequent letters. So when Susan finally became too ill to receive visitors or even talk on the telephone, I decided the best thing I could do to show her how much I cared was to write her a daily letter and that’s just what I did – for seven weeks till her death! These letters were a labor of my love and I like to think they offered her a bit of comfort and joy in her last days on earth.

Susan’s daughter Stephanie would visit Susan and read my letters to her mom and sometimes if Susan was sleeping she’d just read my letters to herself. I never really knew Stephanie up to that point but through Susan’s illness we connected and I think my letters helped that connection take place.

Hopefully Susan is looking down on us feeling happy that I, her cousin and friend, am keeping tabs on the one and only daughter she loved so very much for now Stephanie and I are corresponding. Some day I’ll give Stephanie all the artful letters Susan wrote me, but not yet. Now when I need a dose of Susan’s gentle spirit I just pick up one of her old letters and she’s with me. I wish she could be with me in person, but in spirit is good too and much better than nothing.

Another correspondence that feels particularly spiritual to me was one shared with an elderly gentleman by the name of Harry. Harry was born and raised in Maine, but was living with his children in Virginia at the time of our correspondence. I had just lost my father to Alzheimer’s disease when up popped Harry. We met through The Letter Exchange, that wonderful letter writer’s organization that connects people from all over the world through The Art of Letter Writing.

Harry and I formed our own mutual admiration society. He needed someone to listen to his reminiscences with interest, for his children seemed too busy to show him much attention, and I needed the support, approval, and encouragement that my loving father could no longer supply.

Over the years Harry and I exchanged countless letters, sharing our lives with each other like father and daughter. Some of our letters were serious and others were lighthearted, but all were very caring. I thought about writing a book describing the beauty and value of our letter relationship, thinking it could inspire others, but for now let me just share a few tidbits from our correspondence.

Harry loved to send me presents and who doesn’t love presents? They say it’s better to give then receive and Harry obviously bought into that idea – but I’ll tell you, receiving presents is lots of fun too! Harry was a Romantic. Each of his letters arrived with flowers pressed onto his letter paper. He grew pansies in his Virginia flower box expressly for his letters to me.

He also enclosed tea bags in each of his letters. The tea bags were gift wrapped and tied with gold chords. He also grew edible flowers that he dried, pressed, sugared, and gift wrapped, sending them to me for use at the regular tea parties I hosted. How sweet is that?

I’d have to be careful what I’d tell him in my letters, for once I casually mentioned never having tasted spoon bread, a food Harry loved. I told him I never even saw it in my Ohio supermarkets. Well, Harry took care of that! He sent me a case of spoon bread mix the very next week. I guess he was pretty confident I’d like spoon bread too.

Food gifts from Harry were regular deliveries – mustards from Maine, fruitcakes at Christmas, chocolates, teas, but one time when Harry revisited the camp in Maine where he lived as a child he was very excited to discover goose tongue greens still growing in the old place. He picked a basket-full and wrapped them up sending them to me. They arrived looking limp and very much like the weeds I pull out from my herb garden. I was very touched by his kindness, but not touched enough to eat them. Sorry Harry.

But there were so many other gifts. I can’t tell you about all of them now, but here are just a few.

Miniature Victorian slippers

A colorful shawl

Teacups

Pictures

Music Boxes

Antique Books

With lovely inscriptions

Hankerchiefs

But my favorite gift from Harry was this lovely painting created with his own hands. He took the poem of Arthur Christopher Benson and carefully copied it in an artful manner. The poem on friendship read:

“Because of a friend, life is a little stronger, fuller, a more gracious thing for the fruit’s existence. Whether (s)he is near or far, if the friend is close at hand, that is best, but if (s)he is far away (s)he still is there to think of, to wonder about, to hear from, to write to, to share life and experience with, to serve, to honor, to admire, to love.”

He signed his name beneath the author’s name. Perhaps you’re beginning to see just how generous and how wonderful a friend he was to me. You can imagine my delight each day at mail time. I never knew what surprise would be awaiting me.

Then there was the time Harry went to Maine, to a lake that he loved. He made the journey all alone despite protestations from his family. They were too busy as usual to accompany him on this trip that he was desperate to enjoy one last time. I didn’t want Harry to feel lonely so I wrote him every day while he was there. For this gesture I was awarded the title – “Lady of the Lake”. He wanted to share this lake he loved so much with me so he took countless pictures and taped them all together so as to create a panoramic view. This foot-long picture he sent to me. Sharing was important to Harry just as it is important to me. We both believed sharing doubles the joy.

Harry told me if it weren’t for our correspondence he wouldn’t care to live any longer. Now that sounds a bit extreme, but I believe he meant every word of it. Harry needed someone to care about him. My letters told him I cared. Such a simple thing, old fashioned hand written letters from the heart, but they can pack a powerful punch of love and friendship.

I was proud of myself and happy that I could be making such a big difference in someone’s life, and Harry certainly made me feel special and valuable in return. As I said, Harry and I formed our own mutual admiration society and I recommend everyone belong to such a society.

If you are a person of faith you probably feel as I do – that we all have a loving father in heaven who cares and believes in us, but it sure is nice to have loving people down here on earth who make us feel good about ourselves too. Harry called me his pearl of great price. There were, and are, plenty of days I don’t feel much like a pearl of great price, but I just dip into Harry’s letters and reread his words and I get a royal pep talk that makes me feel much better. I bet you wish you had a Harry in your life too. Well, go find one. There are people all around and everybody needs to feel loved and appreciated.

Though Harry was truly a religious person and spiritual subjects did come up, we didn’t need to speak about spiritual matters in order for our friendship to feel spiritual. Simple caring created the spiritual feeling.

It is my wish for you to encounter correspondences like the ones I enjoyed with Harry and my cousin Susan. You will then see firsthand how letter writing is the best kept secret of the modern world. Letter writing is a physical craft and a very artful one, a social activity that delights and entertains, an intellectual exercise that stimulates, and it can become a spiritual ministry. This art, The Art of Letter Writing, is a complete treat.

Sharing my love and experience with letters has been a joy for me and I hope for you too. I also hope I’ve inspired you (if you aren’t already a letter writer) to pick up a pen and begin your own adventure with letters. I know this art will enrich your life as it has enriched mine, and I know you will bring joy to others as you reach out to them in love.