Support, Prayers, and Soft Leather

Support, Prayers, and Soft Leather

I am always humbled by people who genuinely support my writing and encourage me to continue tapping this keyboard and putting pen to paper. What many don’t know is that the writing process for me is similar to prayer. I use words in time of pain, triumph, surrender, and unsurpassed joy. Words have energy, purpose, and intent in my life the way chanting does to my Buddhist friends, the way rosary beads did for my Abuela Ana Dolores, and how meditation does for my mother. Whenever I recall a significant moment in my life, I can also recall the words spoken or written at that time. During academic achievements, death or birth I have always relied on words. I have written letters to all my children before they were born, to my husband the day we met, and to my ancestors regularly asking for guidance.

What I write on is equally as important to me depending upon the task. I have written on corn and tobacco leaves, napkins, printer paper, lined and unlined notebooks, paper bags, and even on tissue paper following some deep realization after a very ugly snot filled yet, extremely necessary cry when I was sure no one was looking.

So when Harry and Yvette Santiago gifted me with a beautiful soft nubuck leather journal I was surprised and extremely grateful. Harry is a project manager at Image Marketing Inc.com and Yvette is a pedagogue in preschool. Harry and I both share the strange quirk that if a journal doesn’t “feel right” then it doesn’t encourage the writer to fill it. Strange? Well, maybe, coming from the woman who has written love poems on white flower petals! Nevertheless, a journal and a writer develop a bond, a connection to pages and if it doesn’t feel right from the first touch then why bother?

This journal is absolutely beautiful in look and feel. They wrote words of encouragement on the first page and their energy, purpose and intent clearly surrounds its soft leather and buttery interior sheets. I look forward to praying within its pages.

Thank you, Harry and Yvette, for this symbol of support, love and encouragement.