Chatting about paper, pen and ink, postage stamps

Slowly Blossoming: recently I received a beautiful postcard with a postage stamp all the way from Portugal, across the seas.  It depicted a blue and white ceramic tile with a boat on it, and featured my friend's handwriting in a dark blue fine pointed ink pen.

Mia, a friend: It's so wonderful to receive real, tangible mail from dear friends. It's something we see so little of nowadays, what with email and texting being so popular. Mail from a friend is truly unique and beautiful.

Slowly Blossoming: I have always admired her beautiful writing.  This September, we are celebrating the 18th anniversary of our friendship. It's good to have friends who have kept in touch for so long, despite our busy work schedules and multiple changes of location.

When my friend returned from her vacation, she brought me gifts along with another postcard in an envelope embellished with her beautiful calligraphy. I used to love doing calligraphy, so this brings me a special pleasure to see my name in such beautiful writing.

Now that I spend more time off-line, I am grateful for my friends who still mail postcards and preserve the art of handwriting.

Co-Blogging with a Fledgling Storyteller

Slowly Blossoming: About a year ago, I attended a retreat for creative artists at Blue Cliff Monastery. There I met a woman with a gentle smile and open eyes. Her name is Mia and she's a teacher, handmade paper artist and fledgling storyteller living in Philadelphia.

I've invited Mia to co-blog with me for this post about gratitude.

Mia: Thank you so much for inviting me to blog with you. I can't believe that it's been almost a year since we met. I am so grateful that we got to meet and get to know each other!

Slowly Blossoming: This is a Gratitude Mandala I made on Sunday, September 8, 2013, when the pain in my arms was about three out of 10 on the pain scale.

Lately I've been feeling thankful for the medications that help me handle depression, chronic pain and fatigue.

Slowly Blossoming: While spooning turmeric onto the blue plate, I give thanks to my acupuncturist who blogs about food as medicine. She suggested that I take a spoonful of turmeric with honey daily. The bright yellow powder is bitter and chalky, so the honey sweetens every spoonful. Sometimes I mix turmeric into my tea instead.

Mia: It is so nice to hear you thinking about the positive, helpful, and healing things and people in your life. It's so amazing that something as simple and small as a spoonful of honey or a plant's root, stem, or flower can have so many healing elements inside.