The Difference

The Difference

          I’m writing a newsletter connected to this site as well as a blog. I think I should offer a statement of the difference between the two. Since they both come from me there should be a similar tone and perspective, but I’m hopeful that they will stand off from each other. I want to use my blog space as an opportunity to reflect, to share poetry and spiritual perspectives. Hopefully, these will also become starting points for conversations and people will dialogue with me over the ideas there.

          The newsletter will focus on news, intentionally. I’ll share there how things are going in life… our packing our home in San Diego, moving to Ireland, the experience of living in such a new and different place and the exploration that goes on. I also hope to keep people abreast of developments in my writings and studies. Although I hope there will always be an opportunity to dialogue, the responses to the newsletters will come directly to me personally by email. So, those won’t show up as public commentary or engagement shared with whoever shows up.

letters are tangible memories

          Recently, a dear friend of mine (for decades) has stopped writing to me by hand. I collect almost all letters I receive, and I have a pile of his. He is at a point in life where it is easier for him to dictate to his phone, and so I’m getting those messages now. We continue what I call “the slow conversation,” just doing it in a different way. The difference is that now I hear his voice in a way that is different than when I read his letters. The nature of the messages, dictated, is that there is a tone of voice in my head that I can recognize.

          This is similar to what I experience when I read my Bible. I no longer “hear” it as words from a writer but as a communication with a tone of voice. There is someone at the other end of the communication and it is them I am receiving, rather than simply a written communique. It’s a connection with a friend who is leading me into sharing his experience of the world and history and perceptions of the future.

          As I write my newsletter, with details of life and experience, or as I write my blog with more exploration into the meaning of those experiences and this life we share, my hope is that others will find my voice and hear me… and maybe speak back.

Blessings,

Geoff