A Flash of Lightning in a Dark Mailbox ⚡️

This may come as a shock 😉 but I LOVE❤️ snailmail! I am forever in search of that jolt 😉 of inspiration! Oh hey! Did you guys know that National Lightning Safety Awareness Week is the last full week in June? ⚡️

Despite my silly puns this is a serious issue. I learned many interesting facts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.⚡️

Lightning is one of the deadliest weather systems there is!! Records kept by  NOAA show lightning in the United States has killed more than any other weather factor! (Second is flooding 🌊 and third is tornado🌪). Lightning safety awareness reminds people there is no safe place outdoors when a thunderstorm is in the area. Lightning can strike from over 15 miles away. A lot of lightning injuries and fatalities happened because people were too slow to react to an approaching storm or too quick to get back outdoors before the storm was a safe distance away. Lightning strikes the United States about 25 million times a year. Although most lightning occurs in the summer, people can be struck at any time of year. Lightning kills 20 or more people in the United States each year, and hundreds more are severely injured. 

My weather research reminded me of an episode of American Experience Mr. Murphy and I recently watched on PBS about the extraordinary life of “Mr. Tornado.” Tetsyta “Ted” Fujita was born in Kitakyushu City, Japan in 1920. He had a doctorate degree from Tokyo University in mechanical engineering. This amazingly analytical man studied typhoons as his doctoral project. Later he would go on to study the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which would lead him to study meteorology and severe weather at the University of Chicago. I’m sure you’ve heard of the F scale tornado rating system? Well, the “F” stands for Fujita! 🌪 

I was most impressed by the meticulous and artful documentation of his research, not only of weather and its phenomena, but also of details of a more personal nature. For 50 years, Mr. Fujita kept charts and graphs of the research and ideas that comprised his life! He eventually combined them into an unique autobiography entitled Memoirs of an Effort to Unlock the Mystery of Severe Storms During the 50 years, 1942-1992.

I found the episode fascinating and would like to read his autobiography to see what else of his life he recorded! You can read more about him HERE ⬇️ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mr-tornado-remarkable-mind/

When the MurphyBros were little I was forever trying to instill noble character qualities into their little lives. I had chore charts, motivational graphs, personal inventory logs and goal documents. One day after the introduction of another similar article, Murphy Boy Wonder pronounced, “You sure like charts and graphs, don’t you, Mom?” 

I guess I do. Perhaps, in Mr. Fujita, I discovered a kindred spirit. 📈📊📋 ✏️ ✔️ ❤️ 😊 

His approach and commitment have inspired me to record more of my daily life. Every life is valuable and certainly worth chronicling! Maybe someday, way out there in the future, someone will pull my dusty diary off the shelf and look at my charts, graphs and doodles and notice patterns and make observations about how I got from there to here. Maybe there will be some value in seeing it. I believe there is some value in documenting and reflecting on it. 📖 🤔 

All of this weather information has inspired me to write some weather themed snailmail. Why not spread the word about lightning safety awareness via snailmail? Perhaps I will read Mr. Fujita’s book or some other weather related book (or biography of some other famous person who was fascinated by weather and liked snailmail...I’m looking at you, Ben Franklin!☺️) and share my thoughts with one of my pen pals! 

Or maybe I will send some fun weather based sentiments such as..

*It may come as a shock, but I think you’re great!⚡️

*True friends can weather any storm⛈ 💨 

*Warm front heading your way! 😘 ☀️ 

*Sorry to hear you’re feeling under the weather 🌧 

This is why Snailmail is a great creative outlet...the lightning-filled sky is the limit! ⚡️🤩

Go postal, people! And may the wind be at your back and the sun shine on your face! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

Postcard From the Great Outdoors

June is National Outdoors Month! 😎 What a great month! I love walking and adventuring in the great outdoors. One of my goals is to visit every National Park in the US, every state park in my home state of Iowa and at least one county park from each of its 99 counties!! 🌳🌻🌲🌺 🍀🌼🌿🍁🌾

If you are fortunate enough to visit an awesome park or nature area in June be sure and send some postcards or snailmail to your penpals! (And by penpals I mean, ME!) When sending me...I mean your pen pal... some outdoor mail be sure to include your favorite spots, your review of the parks and facilities, any insights, epiphanies, inspirations or discoveries! 

The older I get the harder I have to work to stay active. Setting goals for myself, like exploring these parks, helps me stay active. I think a penpal would make a great accountability partner! Write and invite your outdoor adventure partner to join you on a hike, or if they are long distance, challenge them to take a hike (or other outdoor activity) and report back to you while you do the same. Sounds like a perfectly postal plan! 📬😎

Be sure and use some great outdoor postage stamps if you can! The newest Forever stamps, released by the USPS just this June, celebrate the great outdoors!  Check them out! 🤩 There are also many great vintage stamps that recognize and honor nature and outdoor activities!! I LOVE to collect and use vintage stamps in my snailmail activities. 

I am always inspired by books and stories!! If you have any reading list suggestions send them my way! I did discover this title and found it interesting! I’m adding it to my TBR list. 

A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains By Isabella Bird. This book is the compilation of the letters (Yay!! Epistolary book!) of an Englishwoman to her sister in 1873 during her journey through the Colorado Rockies. 

Remember interested people are interesting people!! She who does not do her research has a much smaller lens through which to view the world. 🧐 📚 ❤️ 🌎 

Go postal, people! (And get outside!)

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

Reaching For The Stars

G.K. Chesterton (one of my favorite authors) once wrote, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” This statement is very comforting to me. I don’t take it to be an excuse for poor efforts but rather an encouragement for those of us who don’t have stellar first attempts. 🙋🏼‍♀️

Star quilt stamp issued by the USPS in 2016

In this modern age we are inundated with images of outstanding results. (Thanks a lot, Pinterest!) Our society is plagued with the desire for perfection with very little effort, or even someone else’s effort! But rather than conclude that one is just not...creative, musical, a good cook, etc., I feel we should embrace the sentiments of Chesterton and celebrate amateurish efforts! I decided that when I am an elderly grandmother (Lord willing) I want to have a certain set of ageless skills that I can use to bless the people in my life. 

• Be well read and know the great stories. (There is something wonderful about receiving the perfect book at the perfect moment in one’s life, especially when it comes in the mail!) 📚
• Bake a lovely loaf of bread. 🍞 
• Whip up a batch of everyone’s favorite cookie! 🍪
• Serve a steaming bowl of love, I mean, homemade soup. 🍲 🥰 
• Knit a cozy pair of socks. 🧦 
• Dance an Irish jig! 🍀 (I am Mrs. Murphy, after all 😉)
• Sew a quilt. 🧵 
• Draw a dinosaur .🦖 
• Play a Chopin nocturne.  🎹 
• Build a Lego spaceship. 🚀 
• Write the perfect encouraging letter with a beautifully addressed envelope. ✍🏻 

Just to name a few things on my list!

When I was younger I was interested in many things but feared I wasn’t really a true talent at any of them.  I’ve come to appreciate the value of time, practice and patience. Most goals can’t be attained overnight, but every bad loaf of bread I bake now is a lesson learned, experience gained, wisdom gleaned. My envelopes will never be as gorgeous as those created by the amazing postal artists I follow on Instagram, but I can still keep trying and sending out snail mail to my postal pals. Joy will be had in the creating and the receiving.
So, I will boldly take on my amateurish adventures, my mediocre mission, my primitive projects!! Yes! I will go forth and...flounder, at least until I get better! 😉 Won't you join me? 

Reach for the stars and the don’t forget to send a postcard!! 🤩

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy

The Sparrow Post

I first discovered Tasha Tudor when the MurphyBros were young and we would make weekly trips to the library. I loved her charming illustrations and stories...especially the corgis! 

Tasha preferred the lifestyle of the 18th century to the 19th and lived a simple country life on her farm in Vermont.  She was interested in many things and over the course of her lifetime, she mastered such timeless arts as gardening, spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, quilting, baking and animal husbandry. She made dolls and marionettes and performed many a puppet show! She enjoyed celebrating holidays and birthdays and elevated everyday occasions by hosting celebrations for the people (especially children) in her life, including many memorable tea parties and dances! 

I particularly fell in love with one of her creations, the Sparrow Post. The Sparrow Post was a beloved tradition started by Tasha for her children. Every year, especially for Christmas and Valentine’s Day, Tasha and her children would craft miniature letters, envelopes and post-boxes. The children would hang their mail boxes on their bedroom doors and every morning they would wake eagerly to check to see if any mail had arrived during the night. Sometimes they would use the Sparrow Post to send correspondence back and forth to each other, and sometimes the letters would be for (or from) their dolls. 

Tasha Tudor wrote about the Sparrow Post in the book, All for Love, 

“The Postmaster is Augustus Sparrow. He has served through three generations and is still none the worse for wear. Mr. Sparrow is a cut wool toy sparrow, made by hand, like many of our favorite characters. He sports a red vest and spectacles. He is very efficient and has coped successfully with many problems during his lifetime, such as lost mail, delayed deliveries, strikes, migration tangles and other trying situations.”

The young MurphyBros and I made our own version of the Sparrow Post out of a shoebox. We hand crafted miniature letters and would mostly correspond with the teddy bears that lived in the MurphyBros room. There were a LOT of them! 🐻 I even remember making a catalog of items the bears could order! (I have a special appreciation of miniature things.) The boys loved sending and receiving mail via the Sparrow Post and so did I! 🥰 

The MurphyBros have long since left the nest so I haven’t used the Sparrow Postal Service in a while, but I thought it would be fun to send a letter to some of my young pen pals and include a miniature letter for their dolls or teddy bears! 🥰 

Snailmail is magical however it arrives, but even more so if it’s miniature and delivered by a sparrow! 😉🤩📬 

Go postal, people! 

XOXO, 

Mrs. Murphy 

Letters Mingle Souls

One of my favorite things about snailmail is getting to “meet” so many amazing people from all over the world!  Through my pen pal experience I have gotten to exchange letters with people from many different countries and walks of life. I’ve written to and received letters from people in England, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Rwanda, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Peru, Mexico and almost all states in the USA!! People who are completely different from me in almost every way...except for our love of snailmail, of course! 🥰📬🐌

I remember one particular exchange of letters...in my letter I told my recipient what I was interested in, the kind of family, home and town I lived in. I shared my favorites: foods, books, music, activities, and I discussed my plans for the upcoming season. When I received my penpal’s response I was initially disappointed when I read we had literally nothing in common!! 🤨 As our correspondence continued however, we shared stories and details about all of our favorites. We both were generally interested in each other’s lives. We asked questions and shared thoughts and insights and generally took time making friends!  I learned so much about my new penpal!! We may not have been very similar on the surface, but the more we wrote to one another the more our friendship developed. We did not have to be “the same” to appreciate one another!! 

All of the political, social and even health issues we are currently facing are nothing if not polarizing. It seems as if virtually everything is something that divides us. 😢 😡

Well, maybe not everything. 🙂 📬 

What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp.  (Anonymous)  

Go postal, people!

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy 

The Fashion of Feelings

There are a lot of bad things happening in the world right now. They are negative. They are big. They are out of our control. How does that make you feel? Angry? Afraid? Bitter? Anxious? Are you filled with rage? Worry? Despair? Shame? Stress? Irritability? Helplessness? Depression? Confusion? Hopelessness? Yikes! It’s too much! 😫💔

These are strange, dark and overwhelming times. These feelings are normal and common to us all. It can seem that these feelings are bigger than us. We are overpowered by them. We can’t really control them. Feelings are just something that happen to us, that we have to endure and wait until they go away.

Or are they? 

It’s ok to have emotions. The Bible tells us that God has emotions and we are created in His image. Our emotions, centered in God, are good! But we are not supposed to be ruled by them, oppressed by them. They are not supposed to enslave and imprison us, causing us pain and robbing us of peace and joy. 

As parents it is easy to recognize attitudes and behaviors in our children that need to change. We can see when they are letting their emotions rule them. We tell them what not to do, emotions to “take off” and we show them what to “put on” instead. When the MurphyBros were wee lads, we spent a lot of time on learning to control our emotions and not letting our emotions control us. We talked about how our feelings were like clothes we were wearing. Things we could put on and take off. We weren’t stuck with them forever!!! We were in charge! 

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”   Colossians 3:12-14

During this time of heightened emotions, I was reminded of these Murphy childhood lessons of comparing controlling our emotions to taking off and putting on different clothes. But how does one do that? It’s a lot easier to change your clothes than it is to change your feelings!! 

We all know that there are things that we can take in that change our emotions, like 

☕️ coffee

🍫 chocolate

🍦junk food

💊 medications

🍷 alcohol

📺 TV

📱 social media

📚 novels

👩‍💻 the internet.

 What we take in... what we are thinking about... controls our emotions. Or as we often told the young MurphyBros, “Your thoughts are the boss of your emotions! What you know trumps what you feel!” 

Do you want to break free from the prison of your emotions? You need to start filling your mind with the truth of God. You will learn what God is really like, what He wants us to do and how He wants us to treat each other. When we start really understanding these truths, we start experiencing the most amazing emotions! 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 

In 2017 the USPS issued some lovely forever stamps honoring fashion designer, Oscar de la Renta. The stamps are beautiful and reminded me of clothing myself in beautiful things like compassion, love, forgiveness, forbearance, patience, humility, gentleness and kindness! Writing about my feelings is one of my favorite ways to deal with them!! (Obviously☺️). I plan on sending some “fashionable” mail to someone that may need cheering up in this time of darkness. Won’t you join me? 

Go postal, people! In the most fashionable way! 👗 

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy 

Going to the Chapel...and Then the Post Office!!

Soon Mr. and Mrs. Murphy the Younger will be celebrating their anniversary! Their love for one another is forever cheering and encouraging me!  Mr. Murphy and I have been blessed in our own marriage and we pray that the MurphyBros will have beautiful, love-filled, lasting marriages, too. I ❤️  love! 🥰 

When I think back on my life and the people who have influenced it and my marriage, my own dear mother comes to mind. When I was a child and was planning a play date or adventure with one of my friends, I innocently asked my mother, “Mom, who’s your best friend?” I was unsure, as I couldn’t really remember her spending large chunks of time with anyone in particular. 

“Dad is my best friend,” she replied. 

“No, I mean, someone not in our family, you know, a real best friend,” I vehemently explained. 

She gently replied, with all her maternal wisdom, “Dad is my real best friend! And someday I hope you find yourself married to your best friend, for it is a true gift.”

When Mr. Murphy was in college and we were dating, he lived with his maternal grandparents for one summer. Consequently, we spent a lot of time hanging out with them. They took us out to eat, to church, we watched movies and baseball games with them and played cards and dominoes with their group of 70-something friends! It was a blast. I enjoyed asking them questions about their dating and early married days and sought any advice Grandma Ruth might have for me. She told me that the best advice she had was to always say “Sure, I’ll go!” to any invitation from my sweetheart, even if it was just to the hardware store.

 “Just drop whatever you’re doing and join him! Because it doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you are doing it together!” 

These two women in particular spoke truth and wisdom into my young life and it has stayed with me! I pass their advice on wholeheartedly! 

Another one of my heroes and influences is J. R. Miller (1840-1912), a pastor who wrote letters as a way to minister to others. I also value his marriage advice... 

“No marriage is complete which does not unite and blend the wedded lives at every point. This can be secured only by making every interest common to both. They should read and study together, having the same line of thought, helping each other toward a higher mental culture. They should worship together, praying side by side, communing on the holiest themes of life and hope and together carrying to God's feet the burdens of their hearts for their children and for every precious object. Why should they not talk together of their personal pride, their peculiar temptations, their infirmities, and help each other by sympathy, by brave word, and by intercession to be victorious in living? Thus they should live one life, as it were, not two. Every plan and hope of each should embrace the other. The moment a man begins to leave his wife out of any part of his life, or that she has plans, hopes, pleasures, friendships, or experiences from which she excludes him, there is peril in the home. They should have no secrets which they keep from each other. They should have no companions or friends, save those which they have in common. Thus their two lives should blend in one life with no thought, no desire, no feeling, no joy or sorrow, no pleasure or pain unshared.”

 ❤️

In this season of weddings (maybe not this year😷) and anniversaries, send some snailmail to celebrate and encourage another couple! 

Go postal, people! It’s lovely! 

XOXO, 

Mrs. Murphy