IFJM - April 11, 2016

Under drawing with pen

Colored in with Stabilo Tones

My dear Gemma,

Please accept my apologies for the way I have neglected our friendship these past few years.  I have no valid excuses, you know, and the truth is I should never have let this distance come between us.
How is it that two individuals, once so close, can suddenly become as strangers?

You are aware of the struggles I have been dealing with -- the cross I am meant to carry.  It is overwhelming and so many times I feel I can bear its heavy burden no longer.

I try not to look back on the way things were before -- when I was blissfully unaware of the tragedy and heartbreak that awaited me -- but I find it difficult to restrain myself, as memories of the past come forth to haunt me.

Pleas send me your good angel -- I need his loving guidance -- and don't forget to pray for your poor

Lizzy

IFJM - April 10, 2016

Emma --

Were you real -- or just a dream?  I thought I saw you there on the edge of the pier that night -- wet hair plastered to your face, long tattered dress clinging about your ankles.  You looked as if you were trying to tell me something, but when I drew near you seemed to vanish into the night's mist.

Folks said your name was "Emma" and you were known to wander those parts.  The next day I found your gravestone in the desolate cemetery -- barely legible due to the effects of time:

Emma Davis

1880-1912

"The wind that gave me my first breath also received my last sigh"

My mind often drifts back to the pier and that brief encounter.  Why is your soul not at rest?  What were you searching for -- lost so many years ago?

Lizzy Smit

IFJM - April 9, 2016

Dear Aunt Carm,

I was at the grocery store today and the checkout lady reminded me of you!

It has been many years since I heard your voice calling me (and everyone else!) "honey", but it is so clear in my memory.

I miss those safe and secure years from my childhood -- washing vegetables at the family farm, chasing the swans by your pond, lying on top of the old blue bus while eating green apples off the tree... You were always there for me to patch up my scraped knees and to give me advice when troubled times came.  How I could use your sage advice now.

You used to tell me life was too short to hold on to pain and bitterness.  I am trying hard to just let it all go, but I fail miserably in my endeavors.  Life seems painfully long from my point of view; but,  I know that in an instant a candle  (that once flamed so bright) can be extinguished.  I shall try to not loose hope.

With love,
Lizzy

IFJM - April 8, 2016

Flora,

10 great lessons you taught me in your (relatively) short life:

1.  It is o.k. to relax and enjoy the sunshine.
2. Wings are not always meant for flying -- sometimes they are meant to nurture and protect.
3.  The most wonderful things are often buried in the dirt.
4.  Only trust those who are good to you.
5.  You can't keep treasures all for yourself.
6.  Comfort is in the company.
7.  Surround yourself with those who share your best interest.
8.  Always forgive and forget.
9.  You still must forage, even when it rains.
10.  Even if you are unable to fly, you can still run very, very fast!

Thank you!
Lizzy

IFJM - April 7, 2016

Dear "Mr Atkins",

I looked for you beneath your bridge this morning on my way to work.  Both you and your bedroll were gone.  I don't know where you go during the day -- are you one of the many hungry faces I see standing on the corner, begging for food?  Once I saw you sitting in your tattered military coat, drinking coffee from a styrofoam cup -- it's steam rising  in the cold morning air.  I was so happy to see that you survived the frigid night (Your friend, Charlie, was not so lucky and his face still haunts my memory).  

How did you wind up on the street?  Did you wake up one day and find everything you had worked so hard for had just slipped away from you?  All of your dreams and plans for your life shattered in an instant?  

You were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country and in return you were abandoned and forgotten under a bridge.  I wish there was some way I could repay you, but what is the price for freedom?

Please know that I will continue to search for you,
Lizzie Smit

IFJM - April 6, 2016

My dearest Tom,

Tonight (so many years ago) you professed your great love for me while asking for my hand in marriage.  You promised to love and respect me forever, and I know you were sincere in that promise.

Some marriages seem to be an endless stream of better days, while others are never able to recover before the next destructive wave hits.  Instead of peacefully riding out the waves together, they struggle, fight and resist each other and the marriage often ends in ruins.

Life will always have its ups and downs -- its "for better" and "for  worse".  Good moments will fill us with such joy and we hope they will last a lifetime; but, when the dark times come, it will seem impossible to see the light that is hidden from us.

Please do not forget the way you love me tonight, and I beg of you to draw upon it in the future, when our world will be shattered and we will become strangers to one another.

With all the love in my heart,
Lizzy

IFJM - April 5, 2016

Dear Wyatt,

I was reading up on you today and, I must admit, you seem to walk the fine line between enforcer of the law and criminal. 

What I read made me wonder:  did your dubious past finally catch up to you?  Are you a product of your past transgressions?  Or were you just misunderstood in your attempts to build a butter life?

Why is it that no matter how much we try and detach ourselves from the past events, people closest to us can't seem to do likewise?  No matter how much we change, they assume we remain the same. Perhaps you and I are similar in this plight, being blamed for wrondoings that were out of our control...

But the question still remains, Mr. Earp: Are you the shepherd or are you the wolf?

Respectfully,
Lizzy Smit