Dear Becca,

Dear Becca,

Happy birthday late! I meant to post this a few days ago but I wasn't feeling very good and my bed and sleep called to me instead. I did call you though.

Anyways I'm glad you're my sister. You're kind and giving and you can make my nails super pretty. And you love me even when I burp happy birthday to you. Well, actually I've never done that but I know you'd still love me if I did.

I remember some fun times we had together. The hide and seek in the dark which mom and dad forbid us to play anymore because of damage to the house and their christmlas tree. I loved the karaoke and the special Christmas gives we give each other.

Anyways, I love you.

Love,

Les

Dear Old Neighbors,

Dear Old Neighbors,

I've been getting emails and things from you since I put my house up for sale and moved, and you know, you really made me feel loved. I really did enjoy living by you all. I know I was a softie when I came to your kids because I think I bought something from every one of them that came over to sell me stuff. And I even bought lemonade and then just dumped it out when they weren't looking cuz it was a little gross. Anyways, I thought I'd share a couple of emails I got from some of you that really made me grateful to know you and really touched me. I didn't realize how much of an impact I had on some of you until you started wishing me goodbye. But it goes both ways, there were so many of you I loved and admired.

Love,

Leslie

Here they are:

Hi Leslie,

How are you? I am sorry we didn't catch you before you left, but I just wanted to thank you for all you did for us. You were a really great neighbor. Thanks for all the times you mowed our lawn or pulled our weeds or found the fencing company or brought us a treat or let me sit by you in church. I learned a lot from you about looking out for and reaching out to others. Thanks for all the good you did here. I hope things go well for you. We will miss you!


Hey there Leslie-

Just wanted to know I saw your house pop up on my radar yesterday and when I told the family at dinner time- the whole clan was bummed about it.

The older kids have really missed you teaching them. You will be missed by us!

Change is always good! It's a rare person who welcomes it :) Good luck, and do- keep in touch with us- our family has really grown to love ya!

Dear Leslie,

I miss seeing you and your terrific smile. I am sad that I don't see you any more and was even sader to see a foe sale sign on your house, but I understand.

Some people come quickly into our lives and quickly leave,
Some stay a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we
are never ever the same.

Thanks for the heart attack on my birthday, the numerous nuts and raisins to lift my blood sugar, and your friendship.

Dear Doug and Margie,

Dear Doug and Margie,

I haven't thought of you in years, and suddenly I woke up this morning thinking of you. Wondering what happened to you.

I remember meeting you both at the cute little house next to the fire station where Doug worked in Brockport, NY. You had the cutest kids. You made us the nicest dinners. You wanted the best for your kids and did everything in your power to teach them good values and to make right choices. You didn't have a ton of money, but you were so down to earth and so kind. Such a giving sweet family. We had great discussions about religion.

Margie, I remember you telling me how you really wanted to get a house with a nice yard for the kids. I hoped you would find that. I hope you got your house with a yard that you could call your own. And I now understand why you felt that way. It's nice to have something and to belong somewhere. To see the fruits of your labors. You really did deserve to get a nice house. You were such a kind, Christlike person.

I wrote you when I left. I loved your family so. I wish you had written back so I could know what happened.

I hope that you found a nice house to move to with a cute yard that you could call your own. I hope it brought you joy. It's been a long time since I saw you both. You're probably grandparents by now.

But I thought of you today. We crossed paths for such a short time, and yet, it was a lifetime of memories and thoughts of you from years ago that crossed my mind today. Wherever life has taken you, I hope you know that God loves you. Just like you had such hopes for your children, he has such great hopes and desires for you. He sees potential in all of us, he knows what we are capable up.

Love,

Les

Dear Bridget

Dear Bridget,

Happy Birthday! Well I know there's like 2 days still, but I'm thinking of you at this very moment and so I am writing to you now.

I am glad you're my sister. I remember some fun times with you.

Do you remember all the special gifts you and I and Becca would wrap up for each other at Christmas? Well and I still do it. And the hide and seek in the dark at moms house and we kept knocking over the christmas tree and breaking things.

And when you got married you and Glenn gave me 2 cookie sheets. It made me happy. Those 2 cookie sheets are the only ones I have and it's so nice to have them.

And I love how we can sit around and laugh about things when you come and visit mom. And when you came down to visit and stayed at my house last year, it was great. I loved having you here.

You are such a hard worker. I'm proud of how hard you've worked to get through school and to take care of your kids.

I am so impressed by how much you love your students and how badly you want them to succeed. You have such a great heart.

I hope your birthday goes well and you know that your family loves you so much.

Love,

Les

Dear r1, r2, j, and a few others

Dear r1, r2, j, and a few others I won't even bother initializing,

Have you ever been misunderstood? Well, apparently it happens. You see, some of you seem to have misunderstood me. How you ask, well since it seems I've put my house up for sale. Yes, I know shocking.

So what do you all do? You assume. Remember what that does. And it did. Why would I sell my house to follow a guy? Much less when I admit I've not got anyone, thats right, NO GUY, that I'm interested in dating? And yet, you still ask, or state that is why I am selling. Annoying and dumb.

No, I'm not following any of you anywhere. NO, I'm not following some guy from the internet, there is NO guy. How well you know me it seems to even make such an assumption. I feel so flattered to think that you think so highly of me that I'd just randomly drop my house and walk away from it for some random guy. Like I have no depth or life beyond that of following a guy. Apparently thats all I live for?

Why can't I just live life to the fullest and should some guy come along that added to it, he can be an accessory in the house, not the one I drop the house for? Or better yet, we're both in a happy place and the house doesn't even matter. It's just a thing. I can't take it with me when I die anyways. People around me, life, service to God, there's so much more than a house in the perspective of things.

And while I'm at it. Just because I'm nice to you doesn't mean I want you, that I am totally in to you, that I am in love with you, or that I want to date you. Can I just not be nice with no ulterior motives? Can I just be kind for no other reason than to do so?

And one date six months ago doesn't mean a thing. It was a date. Yes I got me some food and you got the pleasure of my company. Can I just be your friend with no expectations? Can we just not flirt for the sheer enjoyment of it without anything coming of it? Just because I flirt doesn't mean I'm in love with you. It just means I am honing my skills and sharpening my knives. You're my practice till the right guy comes along. And I'm letting you practice on me for the right girl.

Not selling my house for you, not wanting to date you, not dreaming of you tonight, not even wanting to cuddle with you tonight,

Les

Dear Wasps

Dear Wasps,

Why don't you die? I see you at my parent's house. I see you at my neighbors house, I see you at my house. I kill all your nests, and yet, you still survive.

And worst of all, when I was picking apricots, you stung me in my armpit. Of all the places to pick, you stung me there!

I would just like you to know, it's war. If I see you, I spray you, and you die.

Bring it on you icky little beasties!

Les

Dear R,

Dear R,

I recall the moment I really saw you. It's like the light was turned on and there you were. Standing where you'd been all along, only I finally took notice of the amazing you I should've seen in all along. I felt bad. I wish I had been kinder, I wish I had been friendlier. I should've been better. I'm sorry. Forgive me. One day it looked like you were having a bad day and I felt like I should say something, only I didn't. I regret that. You deserve to know you are thought of especially when the days aren't going well.

I read a blog today that kinda goes along with what I was thinking. I really need to see the world through the eyes I've been blessed with:

The Way we See the World

Sometime today, take a few moments out of your busy life and make an attempt at really seeing.

Find something intriguing to focus on and put in the effort to notice the details: shapes, textures, negative spaces, light and shadow, contours, shades of color etc.

Contemplate for a minute, why that detail caught your attention and how it moved you once you took note if it.

Learning to really see the world is a labor common to the inventor, the writer, the leader, the musician, the teacher, the entrepreneur and anyone else who might bear the title of artist.

It's one of the reasons I get irked when people learn I'm a photographer and the first question out of their mouths is "which kind of camera do you use?"

I just point to my eyes.

The magic isn't in the black box, it's in the way we see the world.

Our vision begets creation.

The lenses through which we look determine the world we live in.

R, thank you for giving me a deeper perspective, a clearer lens to view the world. I'm sorry it took me so long to see you for who you really were. I will do my best to see my brothers and sisters around me in a positive and good light. I am surrounded by the most incredible people and I only need to really look at them to see that. Thanks for teaching me that.

Your friend,

Les