today, i am launching a little service called postcards from heaven. the short description is that it's a postcard service where every month for six months (the first session goes from july through december), you'll receive a postcard in the mail with a note of encouragement and support. there's a page with all the details if you're interested.
when i realized that i was going to use the name postcards from heaven, i hesitated, because i knew that some of the people who might otherwise be interested might be turned off by the use of the word heaven. the trouble is that the name sort of chose itself; there was nothing i could do about it.
so, i thought i'd share the story behind the name.
many many years ago, in 1999, it was a rainy rainy rainy day. we signed up for a tour around the isle of skye in scotland and spent the day driving around the island in an old van while our guide told us dirty jokes between stops. (he had an impressive litany of them.) naturally, he had a scottish accent, so i had a tiny crush on him.
i fell in love with that place. it was cold. it was green. there was a waterfall plunging down a rocky cliff to the sea. there were hairy coos. there was a legend about the river sligachan that promised eternal beauty if you bathed your face in its icy waters. (yes, it was icy, and i'm not so sure it worked). there were stories about babies and flogged nursemaids and castles. there was a faery glen. there was a place that seemed otherworldly. (come to think of it, remember the photo of the sand? if you imagine green hills that look exactly like the sand, you'll have an image of the quiraing.)
it was a perfect (rainy) day.
at one point, this song came on the radio with the chorus, "postcard from heaven, go to where you belong. never find the perfect situation, 'til you know where you're from." i loved it. when we were back in england, i bought the cd (it was by lighthouse family). every time i played it, it reminded me of that day.
when i moved to oregon, i put the cd in my car. it is the cd i always turn to whenever i drive to the coast and run out of radio. i am driving through the rain and the green and the hills to a place that makes my soul sing - it seems fitting somehow.
almost every time i hear that song, i get a little teary. it reminds me of moments when i am so perfectly happy that i am fully and completely present and and feel enveloped in love and support. when i think of heaven in this context, i am not thinking of a place so much as i am a feeling, and that is sort of the feeling i'd like the postcards to convey. well, that's a lot to ask of a simple postcard, but even a glimpse of it would be wonderful.
