When was the last time you wrote a letter?

Not a quick text.

Not an email dashed off between meetings or errands. 

 A real letter — written slowly, with intention, meant for just one person.

 I was thinking about this after reading the novel - The Correspondent,by Virginia Evans, just published last year. 

It’s quietly taken off… and what makes it so compelling isn’t a dramatic plot or big reveal.

The entire book is told through letters — the correspondence of the main character, a woman in her 70's navigating her life, grief, regrets, successes, and of course, connection. 

At first blush, it doesn’t feel extraordinary.

But on second glance, it captures something deeper — everyday life, and the threads of connection that shape it.

A few years ago, I listened to a lecture entitled the Space between the Notes.  It struck a chord with me (pun intended!), as I thought through the implications of this simple phrase.

The quote, “Music is the space between the notes” is attributed to the French composer Claude Debussy.  

Think how music would sound so differently if not played with attention to half, quarter or whole notes, staccatos, and of course, rests - that magic space that delivers the beat and elevates the flow.

 A composition would dissolve into cacophony if those “spaces” weren’t observed … and obviously sound entirely different from how it was intended.