WeCoWriMo Open Letter - Clicking into Place

Dear Pen Pals,

February is the month of InCoWriMo, short for International Correspondence Writing Month. The challenge is to write a letter a day for the whole month. Usually, this would mean 28 letters. In the case of this leap year - 29 letters.

In this spirit of InCoWriMo, I write this week’s newsletter to you all as an open letter.

I’d like to invite you to participate in a “WeCoWriMo” letter. I’ll start. Feel free to add your response and I’ll attach it to my original letter on the InkJournal website.

I spent some time thinking about the prompt that would serve as the theme for this letter. Thankfully, I have a lot of practice coming up with interesting writing prompts.

So, here’s the topic we’ll write about:

Share a memory of when you felt like things clicked into place.

Life seldom goes the way we want. Often, I think the Universe laughs at our pathetic attempts to plan and shape the future. The old Yiddish saying goes “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht,” which translates to “Man plans, and God laughs.” But, there are those moments, those glorious, fleeting moments, when everything seems to fit together neatly and perfectly.

This, for me, was when I asked my wife to hang out for the first time.

We met each other while working at Linens ‘N Things (one of the now-defunct houseware big box stores) during the summer of 2003. Over a few weeks, we got along well and flirted some. She felt good to be around - like a friend I’ve had for ages.

I left work on the day of my brother’s high school graduation party. When I got home, a thought hit me like a lightning bolt - “I should ask her to come to the party!”

I didn’t care that she’d be meeting my entire immediate family. At the time, I knew she would be meeting them eventually. I just wanted an excuse to hang out and be with her outside of work.

I drove back to the store on the pretense that my mom needed salad tongs for the party.

She said “No,” of course.

It was a terrible idea. I was reminded of this fact every time this story was told. 

But, that’s OK. It didn’t stop me. The next time we were scheduled to work together, I was prepared to ask her for her number so we could go out on a more traditional first date. To my delight, she had her number already written on a scrap of paper in the pocket of her smock.

~

From Stacey G.

My story of things falling into place:

There have been many dogs in my life. In the summer of 2022, I was ready for a puppy. I was on the waitlist with a Scotch collie breeder, so I was ready when she posted the first pictures of the puppies soon after they were born in September. My eye was immediately drawn to the dark stripes on the rear end of a puppy half hidden by its littermates.

Move forward about seven weeks: puppies are temperament tested and matched with prospective homes. I know I'm getting a little blue merle boy, but I don't get a chance to meet him until I go to pick him up when he's ten weeks old.

I arrive at the breeder's farm, and she lets the three puppies who haven't been taken home yet come running to meet me. Two puppies dash over (hi, hi, hi, okay bye) and run back to the breeder. The third puppy puts his front paws on my leg and stands there, looking up at me. He didn't move or look away until I picked him up.

He was my puppy, and he had dark stripes on his rear end.

~

So, dear reader, I invite you to share your story of things falling into place. If you’d like to be included, please contact me. For those who will handwrite it, please also include a typed-up version so it’s easier for me to paste it on the website.