To the Person Who Needs One More Morning
You do not need to solve the month tonight. You do not need a five-year plan before you sleep. You need a smaller horizon.
Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby: Words for a Grieving Mother
A restrained condolence letter about grief, sacrifice and the limits of words.
Helen Keller to Sarah Fuller: The Joy of Learning to Speak
A joyful letter about learning, persistence and a newly opened possibility.
Helen Keller to John Greenleaf Whittier: Curiosity Finds a Way
A young person’s warm letter about learning, friendship and curiosity.
Leo Tolstoy to Gandhi: Love Against Violence
A historic exchange about nonviolence, love and moral courage.
Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis: Meaning After Ruin
A long prison letter about regret, suffering, responsibility and rebuilding meaning.
Robert Louis Stevenson to a Friend: Life After Illness
A reflection from Stevenson’s correspondence on illness, recovery and continuing to live fully.
To the Person Who Thinks They Are Too Much
Maybe you learned to apologize for being emotional, enthusiastic, quiet, intense, sensitive, ambitious, needy, complicated or simply different from what someone expected.
To the Friend I Never Thanked Properly
There were ordinary things you did that I understood only later. You answered the phone. You waited. You made jokes when I was taking myself too seriously. You stayed in rooms where I was not very easy to be around.
To Myself After a Mistake
You made a mistake. That sentence can be true without becoming your whole identity.