Handwriting

I really need to improve my handwriting.

Not that I have horrible penmanship. I like to think that my handwriting is better than average. Trust me, I see enough doctors' chicken scratch to know (you would THINK that on something as important as a prescription or a requisition a person would take the time to be at least LEGIBLE. But that is another rant for another day...).

I learned cursive in grade school, just like everyone, but I hated it! It seemed so cumbersome and I probably whined so much about it that Mom finally gave up making me use it. I have been happy to print everything since then. Over the years I've developed a sort of hybrid print-and-sort-of-cursive that is readable and neat.

But it isn't beautiful.

I love to look at old writings - letters, labels, and postcards found at antique shops fascinate me. My grandmother's cards and letters are the same. When I was little I remember reading them was something like a working out a beautiful puzzle. I wish I could make the same sweeping capitals and fine lines of calligraphy. Their letters were not only a means of communication, but works of art.

So recently I have started practicing my cursive again. It's slow, it's messy, it takes more thought than I like to form the words on my page.

But I hope it will pay off. Someday maybe my grandchildren (or grand-nieces and -nephews) will get cards from me in beautiful lines and puzzle out the meanings of all the dancing letters.