Writing letters

So.......as you know from my last post I turned 40 on Sunday.

My birthday was 40 shades of awesome!

It started with a bed full of our family- the bed was a bit squishy with all 7 of us in it but it was truly lovely.

Followed quickly with waving goodbye to hubby as he flew off to NY for busy-ness.

So I didn't feel too sorry for myself about hubby leaving me on my big day I had booked tickets for an event I have been coveting for a while- Women of Letters.  A writing event invented by the lovely Marieke Hardy & Michaela McGuire to bring back the dying art of letter writing.

Click here to check out what it is all about.

I went with one of my most cherished friends.  I am still weeping at how ridiculously MAGNIFICENT it was.

I may have just a had little time before the show to buy myself a little something or three from a lovely little shop near the theatre......

.....well really how could I leave them for someone else to buy?  It would have been remiss of me.  They had my name ALL over them!  I'll find them an appropriate spot ASAP. A lovely momento from a lovely day.

I wrote recently about making sure as parents we make a little time for ourselves.  It was a reminder to myself more than anything probably!  It is really healthy for our children to grow up seeing that we MAKE time for ourselves.   It's vital we bring them up with an understanding of how important & loved they are.  But....it is just as important not to lose sight of the soul inside that makes us who we are- aside from being a parent.  Doting on the children's needs is only part of the job description but in our busy days it is oh so easy to lose sight of the other parts that make us whole.

It is very difficult for many reasons for me to leave my children during the day- but yesterday as  a present to myself on my 40th birthday I had booked tickets to the inaugural Men of Letters event.  I am happy enough to do a fair bit of evening outings (usually to go and see live music) when the kinder types are in bed but leaving 5 children awake aged between 12 & 2 is hard for anyone!

It was extraordinary.  What a line-up of the fabulous male species we were treated to.  These men were asked to pen a letter "to the woman who changed their life".

The men read their letters out to us.  And thankfully Tim Rogers (You Am I) & Paul Kelly sang to us.  What a gift.  And Bob Ellis......wowness, wowness, wowness.

Click here to look at some fab photos of this extravaganza.  It gives you a good idea of the mood.

Why oh why did I not pack the tissue box?  Still at forty I am the biggest cry baby on the planet.    Music and words really just set me off........and there,  right there yesterday I was amidst some of the most heart- wrenchingly, courageously honest writing I had ever been lucky enough to hear.  What an awesome present to myself.

Today I feel emotionally wrung out and a bit high on it all still.  It was the absolute highlight of my day- shared with a beautiful old friend and also a lovely new one (a fellow blogger- we are like minded souls- skip over here to read her take on yesterday too!)

 How lucky am I?!!

And who knew that when I came home the children were all still fabulously happy and couldn't wait to hear all about my day but mostly wanting to know what was for dinner!

I have already booked next months Women of Letters event as part of the birthday treats for Hubby- can't wait!  Check out the line up here.

One of the lovely parts of the show is being provided with writing materials and stamps to write your own letter which is posted by the hosts- like FOR REAL!!!!  How fabulous is that!

It really is a dying art isn't it- the letter.  I remember as a child how amazingly exciting it was when a letter arrived in the post addressed to me.  I still get just as excited because lets face it the only correspondence I get is of the 'you owe me money' variety.  Boo hiss to those.

I thought yesterday as I sat there tears rolling how lovely it would be for me to write to my children.  I  guess we think we need to be away from them to write a letter.  But I thought I might just write to them all anyway- not for any particular reason except to say the kinds of things that I forget to say in the busy-ness of our days.  And believe me the days here are really truly busy- not just pretend busy.

So........excuse me while I pen a real life letter to one of my brood.

Here is an example of Paul Kelly's magnificent writing....one of my kids favourite tracks.  It makes me cry EVERY time....