I have two chairs, one for you and one for someone who mattered in your life
I was choosing a card for a friend today when I came across the one above. On spotting it I could see the two of us seated on the chairs.
I happened to be writing a card to a family yesterday in which I was apologising for not having written for so long. It almost seems like handwritten letters and cards have become old-fashioned. We have become too acquainted with type and computers that it can seem an effort to write a handwritten note or letter. Yet I still find that a handwritten letter carries something more than a typed one. It is personalised by the handwriting which somehow communicates something more of the sender.
Perhaps it was writing one that induced me to write another.
In the one today I took my cue from the photo, imagined us having a conversation and wrote accordingly.
I may not see this person again so I wanted to communicate to them how much they mattered to me and thank them.
Again and again, when I write such cards or letters I find myself returning to J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit.
I first read The Hobbit when I was around 13. I think what helped bring books alive then was that we would read them aloud in class. On a Friday afternoon we would take out the book we were reading in English and each person in the class would read a section.
The specifics of the story did not remain with me but the outline did. Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit, would go on a quest to find something. In my head it was a key. It doesn’t really matter but having taken a quick look at Wikipedia it was for treasure.
Along the way, he meets various characters who assist him in his quest. He succeeds and finds himself back home where he started. Didn’t someone have a quote that summed this up?
For me this is life, we are in a story in which our quest is to fully fill our lives and along the way, there will be people who help us get there. There will be those who seek to hinder us though strangely even they serve a purpose.
So today as I wrote, as if seated and speaking, I remembered the chapter when they had a positive influence in my life. Lots of it was providing a cosy living room, mugs of tea and home made Apple tart. In between, there were stories the best I still remember.
The most important part was to let them know, although I hope I have said it before, how much they mattered and to say ‘thank you’.
g.
