Analog Letter Posts - not Notes

A restructuring (& LETTER #1 - LETTER #8)

I wrote a post called Analog Connections early on in my Substack adventure (March 15, 2025). It was about my desire to handwrite and send a letter each week to someone that I was thinking about. Time to focus on a human I appreciate.

I’m new to Substack, so I really didn’t know what I was doing. Initially, I thought I should just add each letter below the post, but then I realized how long that post would eventually get.

So I had another idea! I thought I should post each of my new letters in Notes weekly. That said, as I navigate Substack more, I realize that’s not really the place for these. Notes is not the right space.

Then I saw what

Beckett Johnson

was doing with his Sunday Comics and I thought: “That’s it! My letters are Beckett’s comics!”

So, I will be posting my Analog Letters each Wednesday at 8am for the time being.

Lucky you! I’m going to post Letters#1-8 here now, just so they are all in one place — I get that this is not 8am (the idea just occurred to me). I also realize this is a long flippin’ post (so read on or not. I hope you do.).

In any case, enjoy the show of me figuring out what I’m doing… Thanks for being here. <3

---

LETTER #8

This one is for my sponsor who has been magical for me in my recovery! She gets my struggle with the GDMF patriarchal religiosity of AA. She embraces honesty and vulnerability and fallibility and joy and pain with such an open heart. She holds space. I am grateful for sobriety and for that magical human in my life!

(I later added this as a comment: Ha! I’m talking about patriarchy in this note and I didn’t notice it until I posted this - there is an obvious phallus right in the middle of my freakin’ letter! Wow, Moseley! Talk to your therapist.)

---

LETTER #7

I’m sitting outside in the sun on the newly-built stoop in front of my mom’s place writing this weeks letter. Belva hasn’t been here for awhile. She’s been in Amador County trying to figure out what to do with her house in California - Is this the time to be selling a house in the US? Does she turn it into an AirBnb? Do we all escape to her 25 acres of land if this country completely falls apart?

She’s renting the 2nd floor of my partner Lachlan’s house in Portland.

While she has been gone, he built an outside entrance that gives them both individual space. That said, he wanted to keep the spaces connected. So there’s a secret passageway behind a bookshelf - it’s pretty magical. When I go from his place to my mom’s, I feel like I’m walking into Narnia.

On the stoop, I’m writing a letter to Maria, our guide for the first few days in Portugal when my other partner, Steve, and I visited thinking we might want to expatriate. She gave us a fabulous flavor of her country and was a kindred soul - another one of my humans!

Our conversations were invigorating! We are both in similar transitions in our lives - looking at what is possible as we choose to get out of the grind and jump into the unknown with an eye towards becoming our essential selves. We’re 8,000 miles apart and our human experiences align.

It’s another reminder that we all want to be seen and loved; we want connection and community; we want the freedom to live our lives and to share our gifts.

At 60, I expect I have a few more decades on the planet. I plan to use them that way for myself and to support others when I can as they follow their personal paths. Time to take a leap!

---

LETTER #6

This letter goes to my partner Lachlan who is one of the most Zen humans that I know. I’ve been missing him these last couple of weeks. I wrote it over a few days in Malta and finished it up at the airport where they happened to have this fabulous mailbox!

Not only that, the stamps I was able to get in Malta are the ones that you have to lick to get on the card! When’s the last time you licked a stamp??

I have to say, this whole process of writing and sending letters is feeling so good. I got to have Lachlan with me for a bit while traveling.

I can’t recommend doing this enough. I hope you try it out!

---

LETTER #5

I’m traveling so I don’t have my workshop with all of my art supplies to make an original card, but I am still committed to handwriting a letter a week. So, here is number 5!

I wrote this on a postcard made of cork that I bought at a souvenir stand in Lisbon, Portugal.

My friend Mich is inspirational. Our lives have crossed paths in so many ways over time - I’m not going to out her. I’m just going to say I’m grateful for her in my life!

---

LETTER #4

Walking home through the streets of Lisbon at dusk. There’s a Communist Party demonstration in the streets. Red flags everywhere. Young people, old people, a man with a bullhorn shouting in Portuguese. Crowds gathering around watching the spectacle.

Steve says: “You wouldn’t see this at home. The Proud Boys would show up right away with their guns.”

He’s right. But here it’s normal. This parliamentary system allows for protest without violence. People speak their minds openly. At least from what I can tell so far.

This is why Steve and I are on this trip. Maybe this is the place where we escape the US if it comes to that. We’re on a quest to see what is possible.

As a part of my Analog Connections mission, I wrote letter #4 to my favorite uncle and aunt - David and Fen. They were in Portugal last year and gave us a ton of tips about where to visit. So, I sent this one to them. I decorated it with the paper off a can of Portuguese sardines that our friend Mich gave to us after her visit to Lisbon a few months ago.

We’ve only been here a couple of days, but the start of this trip has been magical.

---

LETTER #3

I wrote Adam Sawyer, Professional Gentleman of Leisure, next. Adam and I randomly met when we worked for Portland Walking Tours in the mid-2000’s. We weren’t close, but we were in each others spheres.

When I needed a car after a hard break-up and had next to no money to get one, he offered me one of his free.

I still have that car and I am now passing it on to my kid, Ethan, who finally at 23 decided to get a drivers license.

Adam, a professional travel writer and photographer, also agreed to be interviewed by Ethan for his final Journalism project.

Ethan graduated Magnum Cum Laude from the University of Oregon in 2024 - and the article he wrote was part of that. I sent him a letter along with the magazine with the article Ethan wrote. I should have sent it a year ago, but better late than never, I guess…

You never know what affect you are going to have on someone’s life! I am so grateful for Adam in my life!

---

LETTER #2

I was trying to get my sea legs at this point on this project. I neglected to get a photo of my letter. I tried to find a picture of us together, but couldn’t. I need to go through some boxes. If do find one, I’ll add it later.

In the meantime, here a picture of me with my cousins — Be’s kids— circa 1966. I’m on the far right in that amazing Christmas outfit with some attitude on my face.

I wrote a letter to my Aunt Be (yes, I have an Aunt Be). She turned 90 this year. Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s all of my extended family would get together at Lake Greenwood in South Carolina. Aunt Be would bring her Tarot cards and I always looked forward to focused time with her.

She was polyamorous before polyam was a thing! I didn’t realize I was too until I was in my 40’s and I ran into “The Ethical Slut” and started my exploration of alternative relationship structures!

Aunt Be was one of the people I used to write frequently in my 20’s. I’m bummed that I didn’t take a picture of that letter. I wasn’t quite in the flow yet!

---

LETTER #1

My first letter went to pamelasuejohnson.com. A close friend and an amazing artist. We hadn’t connected in quite awhile and I just needed to let her know she was on my mind. She taught me multimedia art, nature walks, and leaning into your authentic self. She was part of the inspiration to make this happen.

---

And there we have it! From now on, I’ll be posting these on Wednesday mornings.