Why Dear and Love
I came up with the name “Dear and Love” about a hundred years ago in one of those epiphany moments every creative writer hopes for, practically idolizes. After all, isn’t that how every blog and book gets written? Candles lit, gloomy skies outside, a cup of lukewarm coffee at her side… the words just flow.
Sike.
I’ve sat down and started writing multiple times in the last two weeks. Not just for work (that was much more frequent), but to write words from the heart for you and a little bit for me. And yet, I’m left with multiple drafts, one without a title and not a single one finished.
It’s the craft of writing I find myself more interested in writing about these days than my own personal life. Call it avoidance or perhaps finding my calling with writing, but the thoughts that flow these days are the things I’ve learned becoming a writer.
On Why
Before we get to that in future blogs, I figured I should probably explain the meaning behind the name. I tend to think people can read my mind, and I remind myself regularly to “say what you mean and mean what you say” when it comes to writing. You can’t always trust people can or will read between the lines. Though sometimes that’s what keeps things interesting. Rather, you’ve gotta tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and then tell ‘em what you ‘told them. Or something like that.
So, Dear and Love.
Since I was young, I’ve loved writing letters and sending mail. Perhaps it was ingrained in me from a young age as I casually observed my mom exchanging letters with friends in faraway states from seasons past. Not that she couldn’t have called them on our landline, which I am sure she did from time to time, but letters were more normal back then. That is, the 80s and early 90s. This was pre-email, pre-Facebook, and surely pre-iPhone. Heck. Who am I kidding? My mom still writes letters to a few close friends. She also has amazing penmanship thanks to her Catholic School upbringing and all those wretched nuns. (Note: Mom only has good things to say about most people, except those nuns).
The first letters I remember exchanging were with one of my best friends who lived just 15 minutes down the road. She sent me a photo of myself she snapped with her disposable camera as I sat in the front seat of her parent’s minivan during some outing or precursor to a sleepover. When I received it in the mail months later, posted to cardstock with an address and note on the back, seventh-grade me was mortified. That picture is horrible!
I still have it buried in a box somewhere.
And that’s where it began. We exchanged letters through high school, and even when I went off to college and she moved to Ireland for a season. Sometimes then, emails replaced stamped mail, but the tradition continued. I had other friends and a sibling living abroad who also made a point of mailing me postcards from their various travels. Those somehow felt extra romantic to my wandering soul.
Happy Mail
It was around that time I started my first blog… Anthropologie of a Girl. I had a love affair with Anthropologie, the clothing and home goods store that captured our hearts in the mid-2000s (and still some today, though I’ve embraced a much simpler style these days with fewer skirts and more tennis shoes). I’m not sure what exactly I wrote about back then, but my voice hasn’t changed all that much, so I’m guessing it was mostly about life and my latest Pinterest inspo.
At some point, that blog lost steam as I didn’t know what to write about anymore. Then there was the brief stage I blogged under the title “Scribbles” as I thought it allowed me to write about anything I wanted without needing a theme or a point. I just wanted to write after all, darn it!
Then came Dear and Love. As I’ve said, I always loved letter writing and receiving. In them, you can write about whatever you want. You can write them to whoever you want. And who doesn’t love happy mail?
Proper letters, in my opinion, all start and end the same.
Dear so and so,
[Pleasantries.]
Love,
Your Name
Hence, Dear and Love.
Better Together
Each blog I write on Dear and Love, or a contributor shares, is a letter to you, our readers. They will vary in topic and voice; some will tell stories, and others will inform. They might be short or sometimes long, but they are written to you and for you. Consider us your pen pals. Your source of happy mail (though sometimes hard truths or realities may be woven in).
With our letters, we hope to challenge, encourage, and inspire. We hope it makes you feel a little less alone in your season or your struggle. After all, we are better together. Life is not meant to be lived alone.
Now go send some mail!