Letters To A Friend

Today I am happy to welcome guest blogger, Author columnist, and children’s book writer and illustrator Jennifer Paros. Enjoy!

One of my favorite passages is from the book Little Bear's Friend, by Else Holmelund Minarik, in which Little Bear writes his new friend, Emily, a letter.

Dear Emily,

It is snowing.

I wish I could send you some.

I love the snow.

Owl, Duck, Hen and Cat

send their love.

So do the ducklings.

I cannot wait for summer.

Your friend,

Little Bear.

These words still me.  The communication is intimate.  In the first journal I ever kept as a child, I wrote the same first line:

"It is snowing" (because it was).  And that was my first attempt to connect to myself, to put form to my experience and tell SOMETHING/SOMEONE I was here.

My experience of Life is that it speaks to me.  And to the extent that I'm listening, I am happy.  For it never tells me I'm late or wrong or too anything, instead it speaks behind the dramas and stories of the day, offering me friendship – like Little Bear – in the simplest, sweetest terms.

Jennifer Paros is the author of Violet Bing and the Grand House. Visit her at jenniferparos.com.

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