Mary C. M. Phillips

I decided to participate in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Month of Letters Challenge which begins in February.

For one month, I will write at least one letter per day.  

Challenging, yes, but I’m looking forward to turning back the clock, if only for a month.

Although I revel in modern methods of correspondence; blogs, twitter, and facebook, I still love the more antiquated form of letter writing.  I appreciate good paper and heavy parchment (hence my obsession with chapbooks) and am particularly fond of Sabon 10 font.

I love listening to the music of Robert Schumann, the charm of lace, old amplifiers (Fender), large dial radios, and vintage guitars; and gravitate towards more classical material particularly books and movies.  (I still, however, love modern medicine and toilet paper).

Today I’m wearing my new (old-fashioned) lace up boots; with long laces,  in “Victorian steam-punk” style (thank you Erin, for the accurate term) and lovely tapestry lining!  

Tapestry lining?  Who’s ever gonna see that?! said my practical husband.  (See photo on right).

I’m also currently re-reading Jane Austen’s Emma along with The Dark Jane Austen Book Club bringing to mind pretty parasols, gowns, and of course good manners.

So old-fashioned letter-writing will be a breeze.

A pleasant and friendly breeze.

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*    *    *

“You should wear half boots.” After another pause: “Nothing sets off a neat ankle more than a half boot; nankeen galoshed with black looks very well. Do not you like half boots?”

“Yes; but unless they are so stout as to injure their beauty, they are not fit for country walking.”

– Jane Austen, The Watsons

I find that most of my exceptionally talented friends are gifted in more than one area.

I’ve discussed this with several of them and they agree that their expression in art is more than one dimensional.

A talented musician is also a brilliant writer; a gifted dancer is also a skillful painter; a powerful poet, a proficient sculptor.

The same could be said for Jane Austen.  Although she downplayed her musical ability, many think she was in fact much better than she ever admitted.  Even her impromptu poems (this one, written for her niece, Anna) shows the sharpness in her gift of writing poetry:

Her wit descends on foes and friends

Like famed Niagara’s Fall

And travellers gaze in wild amaze,

And listen, one and all

Her judgment sound, thick, black, profound

Like transatlantic groves,

Dispenses aid, and friendly shade

To all that in it roves. 

I have a couple of addictions.

Drinking coffee is at the top of the list and I am thankful for the daily fix supplied by my trusty Keurig.

The other of course, of late, has been reading Jane Austen.  As an addict can simply never get enough, and six novels can be re-read only so many times, I’ve moved onto sequels and the various mash-ups in the Austen genre.

No complaints. None.

Reading classics is a good obsession and one I won’t be giving up.

But I’ve been slacking off in other areas.  Two in particular:  working-out and reading my Bible.

But, thanks to Thomas Nelson and writer, Steffany Woolsey, A Jane Austen Devotional, is getting me back on track.  Each devotional (about 100 in the book) begins with an excerpt from an Austen book, followed by a spiritual teaching (say, a lesson on hypocrisy regarding Mr. Collins) and then ending with a verse of scripture.   The book itself is a beautiful clothbound hardcover.

It is the perfect, without question, perfect book for me.

I am slacking off a bit less than usual.

Now all I need is a treadmill.

*   *   *

May you

find peace and joy in the smallest of things.  

May your love be great and felicity abound!

And may…

(Uh, oh, experiencing Jane Austen electrolytic-conductor-misfiring

brain molting…short circuiting….

 Jane transmitting. Data received.)

And may you have

A house in town!

Every thing that is charming!

Three daughters married!

and

Ten thousand a year!