Notes to Self and the Beauty Beyond Resistance
On typewriters, memory, and how creativity unfolds when we stop resisting | my week in photos .05
What if you just wrote?
This morning, after staring at my vintage typewriter for way too many minutes, thinking about ways I could style a photo with it, what I might type today, how I haven’t been typing, how I keep meaning to type, wondering how fun it would be to type a message to myself every day, just a little something.
hello you, what were you just wondering to yourself?
Such a cute little typewriter, and in my favorite color of greige too, somewhere between mushroom and café au lait. I bought it at a flea market somewhere in Rome. I love flea markets, especially the pop-up street mercatini.
The typewriter sits right next to the television. I have limited space – I live in a very small attic apartment – and there’s just enough space for it on the tv stand. It looks awful, actually. But I leave it there because I keep meaning to type. In my view.
I got my first vintage typewriter when my son was little. We bought it a thrift shop so he could learn how to type. I set it on a little table in our foyer and we would take turns typing out words. Soon, the words became sentences. Shortly after that the typewriter became a family message center:
Don’t let Cashew out today she caught a mouse yesterday.
Can we make cookies today?
Two ravens and too many sparrows.
I love you.
I love you too.
I love you to the moon.
I love you to the moon and back.
I love you to the moon and back and then back to the moon….
An old typewriter became a fountain of creativity. We wrote letters, lists, poems; we posted warnings and grievances and declarations. Our typewritten missives became airplanes the cat would chase or, shredded, bedding for our backyard chickens.
no more homework!
I’ll be back at 5 on the dot.
XoX oxoxo XXXXX OOOOO
And then we moved.
I don’t know what happened to the typewriter.
I wish I had kept all those inky pages.
hello you…..
what if you just wrote?
Fearless jasmine, beautifying the wall of resistance.
What if you just wrote? What if you just wrote past the resistance? You might end up with a bouquet of words.
This week’s theme of my week in photos is the beauty beyond resistance. The jasmine unfurls with ease, beautifying the wall of resistance. I’m learning from the jasmine.
I’ll leave you with a writing prompt: Write a message to yourself on a typewriter. What do you need to hear today? Try it. It is so fun!
Thanks for reading Everything Writerly! If you are new here I am Michelle Ciani, a writer living in Rome. I work with women who are bringing their writing dreams to life and also write Letters from Rome here on Substack.
There is so much to love in your words. It flows so beautifully. And I love the typewriter story so much too.
You make me want to write….right now. Thank you. 🤎
I regret selling all my typewriters! I had 4 (!!) Maybe one day I'll get another one and start leaving notes for my family like you did... what a playful way to use it!