A Letter From Natalie

This evening I received the most wonderful thing in the mail. It was not a pay check, or a big parcel containing the contents of yet another needless online shopping spree. It was a hand written letter from Natalie.

It's been a tough couple of weeks, at uni, at work, and at home. I was starting to feel trapped in my own routine, treading water, running in circles and not going anywhere. But there's something so beautiful about the letter, whether it be her handwriting or the scribbled out words, or the slanting lines. It's just so real. As I read it, it reinforced in me what I promised I would never let go of, but I fear I was starting to; that the world is a big place, bigger than I can possibly imagine, and it certainly doesn't revolve around me. And there are others out there, who are just as real.

Reading what I just wrote, it sounds a bit silly. But it's the truth. It was something we promised to do after she moved down to Bunbury, write each other. I thought it would be a nice thing to do; I never knew how important it would turn out to be. It's hope incarnate.

And none will hear the postman's knock,
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear himself to be forgotten?
- W.H. Auden