STEPHANIE CULEN
  • Home
  • Yoga
  • Poet's Corner Book Shop
  • Sacred Labyrinth Walk
  • Blog
    • Poems
  • About
    • P.S.
  • Join the List

History of the Handwritten Note

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 
I am a BIG fan of the handwritten note and still have many analogue tendencies that are revealing themselves in 2015 as being quite strange.  For example, I still keep a Filofax calendar to set all my appointments.  If I don't write it down with pen and ink, I cannot remember a thing.  I also write out grocery lists and to do lists on index cards....a habit my grandfather used to do and I simply adopted it when I was a child.  As much as I'm a Facebook and Instagram junky, I also toggle the analogue world with reverence and glee. 

In the technological age of digital and social media, however, the art of the handwritten note is a craft fast becoming obsolete.  And yet, it is still one of the most welcoming and powerful modes of communication.  When receiving a handwritten note, we have a tendency to pay attention.  There is thought and feeling and intention behind the delivery and it's quite sweet, and nowadays, rare, which makes the reception that much more enticing.

Perhaps because it is so personal and heartfelt to write a note and the process also requires patience, time and materials.  Materials like pen or pencil and paper or card.  There is an effort that is embedded so beautifully and organically in this plan of sharing thoughts and experiences, gratitude and thankfulness. 

It is different than the immediacy of writing a text or email.  When writing and sending and then receiving a hand written note or letter, there is the quality of  time and attention to details that are considered.  It takes TIME to choose the card, reflect on the words, write the note, seal and address the envelope, place the stamp, and mail the package.  On the receiving end, there is also the time it takes for the post to be delivered. 

It is an exchange and a form of communication that is timeless and exquisite and I invite you to practice your skill set and see how it feels to send some notes out into the world.  Choose one person each week and send a "thinking of you" note to them and see what happens. 

As I was writing this post, I was curious about the history of the handwritten note and this is what I discovered : Click here to read about it. 

And then I also was reminded of a postcard that came to me hand written from Costa Rica a couple of years ago.  It was never signed and so I have no idea who sent it to me.  But it serves as a reminder to me of the importance of sending postcards, notes and cards to friends, lovers, family and strangers, too.  It is also a reminder of the sweetness of messages that come through in unexpected ways.
Picture
Write with your hand and your heart and send it out to someone today.  It may be the most profound message that someone receives. 
Picture
#secretagentstephanieculen #mydailyom
0 Comments

Please Pay Attention...

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 

Your Future Self is Calling You

Every person you meet in the course of your lifetime has an impact on you.  There are those people, that when you meet, you have no idea that your life will be changed in some way forever.  There are those people that come and go quickly never to be seen again.  There are those people that you meet and think you will not see again and they become the most important people in your life.  There are those people that are in your circle of love forever and move in and out of your daily life like the tides of the ocean.  There are those people that you feel will be with you always and they disappear unexpectedly or circumstantially. There are those people.. .you fill in the blank.  People are important.  Honor the people in your life.  All of them.

People people people are what make the heart heal and break and grow and love and learn.  It is people who influence and experiences and shape your path in ways that are both subtle and profound. It is in the meeting and the sharing that is the present moment.  Savor it and appreciate it.  Love it and adore it.  Breathe in each person as if they have a new part of your life to unfold for you. 

It is in paying attention to the connections and opening to curiosity as that of a child that the magic and power of Presence and People will be revealed. Over time, the connections and reflections give pause to understanding and inspire the respect for each encounter. 

I am reminded of T.S Eliot's Four Quartets:


You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
       You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstacy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
       You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
       You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
       You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

In contemplation and gratitude, here is another poem for the sharing offered to me recently by my college professor, Michael Glaser, who has had SUCH an overwhelmingly and unexpected influence in my life it is beyond explicable and I am forever indebted to his generosity and graciousness in how he shares his passion for the human condition of love and loss and extraordinary living.


No, no there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.

-- Wendell Berry --
Picture
#secretagentstephanieculen #mydailyom
Picture
0 Comments

Build Your Dream

3/6/2015

0 Comments

 

On a flight to Seattle, I was reflecting on the last three months since January 1st arrived and what had shifted for me in my heart and mind to build my dream and I wrote this poem.

Picture
Build your dream
On rock and with cream
Step by step you will be seen
Move slow
Dance quick
And in a lickety split
The vision and mission come together with wit
Keep going
Things are flowing
With effortless effort
When you build your dream
On rock and with cream...
Picture
0 Comments

Chocolate + Poetry

3/5/2015

0 Comments

 

ChocoLove Note

Chocolate + Poetry are two of my favorite things EVER!!!  

When you buy a ChocoLove bar, you get the best of both worlds!

Bliss!!!!
Picture
If you but knew
How all my days seemed filled with dreams of you.
How sometimes in the silent night
Your eyes thrill through me with their tender light,
How oft I hear your voice when others speak,
How you 'mid other forms I seek -
Oh, love more real than though such dreams were true
If you but knew.


- Unknown Author
Picture
www.stephanieculen.com
www.mydailyom.com


0 Comments

Love is in the Air

1/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tears continue to stream down my face as my heart dips and dives in unexpected ways
It’s been happening for days now
I tried to shift the train of Love and it’s cars of attachment
Wanting to be free of the sweet suffering of longing and desire, hope and heart strings.
But it seems there was no changing directions on this route

Love has it’s own power and might.

But in the attempt to change course, the train was divided.
Sheets of separation now hang where there were once windows and doors
A crack in the structure where there was once more fluidity, harmony and union.

I sit alone in a seat
With a feeling of inexplicable emptiness and curiosity of what the journey will reveal.

Time past and time future
Sit like a diamond shaped crystal at my heart in time present
Another tear falls and another
I sigh.

What is it that happened?
This thing called Love.
0 Comments

Wizards and Whisks ~ for Daniel

10/15/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Magic garden bloomed
Full on flowers and foliage
Sunlight, starlight, moonlight mists
Beauties and baubles
Wizards and whisks
Tricksters and treats
Fire and truth
Thumps and beats
Colors bold and bound less
Notes of strings and strums
A wedding, a love affair and healings beyond dreams
The heart skips a beat
As one by one, they leave
And go
Onward and out
A tear falls
What is that about?
And another too
Ah, it seems a reminder again :
Time to plant more magic seeds
To grow and know
That love is real to feel.

0 Comments

Dream State

10/4/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Awake to the grey cloudless sky
I’m back in NYC
Like a dream, I have a memory
Of blue skies and fluffy clouds
Birds flying around the fishing boats on the city pier
Sunrise is the backdrop of the welcoming palm trees
Pink and orange, blue and white fill the landscape of wonder
The sweetness of the air full
Of jasmine
My heart aches to return to the sea
The beautiful sea
Where the dolphin play
And the seashells lay
I awake to the concrete gray
of the city.


0 Comments

Heart Song

9/29/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Heart break
Heart ache
Heart opening
Heart longing
All sharing the same thing :
The Heart.

Feeling the feeling of feeling.
Time past and time future point to time present.
Drip drip drip
The sound of the faucet
Like a heartbeat
Thump thump thump
In the chest
The magical mystical Heart.


0 Comments

Pisces

9/17/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Fish jumping
Church bells chiming
Birds chirping
Splush another fish
Motor whirl
Splish another fish
Humming truck
Leaves rustling
Soft whisper of the grass
Fish fish fish
Water slur
Big breath of peace
Remembering
Holy jumping fish in jubilation
Wishing safe journeys
Returning again and again
To the calm abiding of the island.


0 Comments

Moonlight in Vermont

9/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Rain poured all day
Awakening the senses of the heart
In a new way

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat

eternal Om resonated through the house like a bigger pulse and force of depth of life

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat

Walking downstairs the smell of coffee and Nag Champa scented the air
The wine glasses remained as they were with the candles burned low
luring me back to the late eve and the day past

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat

Magical mystical memory
Of a drive in the countryside filled with crisp colors of orange, red, brown and green
Horses, cows, chickens and dogs
Pumpkins, apples, gourds and hay

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat

The speed of the wind
The sun’s golden rays
Gave the face a flush in the cheeks
Balsam trees unexpectedly scented the road
A covered bridge offered another sweet surprise

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat

The walk through the ferns revealed
Hemlock trees reflecting in the pond
Turkeys and ravens sounded out their call as dusk approached
And the gibbous moon rose in the star-filled sky

Pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat
Picture
0 Comments

Prayer

6/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Breathing in the prayer of gratitude.
Every breath like drops of water on a dry leaf nourishing and cleansing,
supporting and purifying,
satisfying and gratifying.
Breathing in the prayer of gratitude.
Essential heart evolution of humility and grace.
Beyond measure. Boundless. Endless. Timeless.
Gratitude.
Thank you.
0 Comments

for Anna

5/13/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
magical connection
I always feel love
when I feel you
heart inhales and exhales
with pure expansion
and she sings
when she hears your call
mermaid to unicorn
the vibrations of love
flowing
endless
boundless
forever…
0 Comments

Jewel Box

4/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
shattered heart
into a hundred thousand pieces
like broken glass
fragile and clear
instead of one diamond
there are many now
sparkling jewels
in the treasure chest
of my soul

0 Comments

    Stephanie Culen

    stephanieculen.com

    Picture
    #theartoflivingpoetically #talesfromthetreehouse

    Enter email for more ♥️
    Subscribe

    Categories

    All
    Beauty & Fashion
    Chocolate
    Essential Oils
    Health & Healing
    Journal
    Love Yourself
    Poems
    Reiki
    Stories & Letters
    Teas & Tinctures
    Thoughts & Musings
    Yoga


    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2017
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Yoga
  • Poet's Corner Book Shop
  • Sacred Labyrinth Walk
  • Blog
    • Poems
  • About
    • P.S.
  • Join the List