monday magic

It's a rainy Monday morning in Sapporo, and I've just finished six or seven of the ten cards I had hoped to paint today. Monday is my day to make etegami for friends (and sometimes strangers) who are sick, disabled, or elderly, and confined to their homes or hospital beds. I'm hoping someone will do the same for me when I can no longer paint. The recipients who are able to do so might send a letter or card in return, but this doesn't happen very often.

Last week I made a new, and very young friend through Postcrossing. She reached out to me by email from her sick bed and is in terrible pain-- although I didn't find this out until later. I promised to send her a "surprise" if she would first send me a hand-drawn card, even if all she could draw was a stick figure. She wrote back to say she would try, and later she told me that concentrating on making the card had helped her to forget her pain for a while. The magic of etegami.

I eagerly wait for my husband to pick up the mail on his way home from work every evening, but her card hasn't arrived yet. Soon. Maybe today! Making etegami is magical. But waiting for an etegami that you know is on its way is magical too.