Dear Sister:

Can you believe that we are six months into our aliyah? We’re grateful to be here and grateful for all of the opportunities, for personal growth, that being here brings.

Life here, in many ways, is both simpler and more challenging than life there. The crazy middle-easterners we call “friends” and “neighbors” are fab and are vehicles for much of our cultural enlightenment. Sure there are creeps among the saints, but most of the folk in our circles are ordinary, wonderful, hard-working people. Among them, there is less of a feeling of entitlement and more of a feeling of “can do.” After all, here, prices are higher (by about twice the amount) and salaries are lower (by about half) than there. Locals make things last, fix things, use something else, or do without. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acclimating, foreign, hebrew, isreal, Letter to Sister, sister, travel

Dear Paakhi,

Yes, I always wanted to call you a little bird. Why a bird? So that you would have wings to fly and soar up, high up. Higher than the clouds. Beyond anyone’s reach. Nobody could catch you or pin you down. Probably you may get a chance to speak to the wispy clouds, the ones that dissolve so mysteriously. Some of them might even take you along their eternal journeys across the skies. Paakhi, you may even fly close to that great orange-red orb in the sky, feel its searing heat. I am sure my little angel will make friends with the great sun god. Maybe even the sun god will envy your freedom. The magical sunbeams will be partners in your adventures.

Like a sunbeam you flood my life with light and colour. My darling daughter, yet to be born, how many dreams I weave for you. You will get to see the many-coloured rainbows. Paakhi, you might teach them to do a tap dance with you. My little bird don’t get scared of the loud rumbling thunderstorms or the lightening that might come in your path as I was when I was young. I would cling to Amma’s sari and hide my face in her lap. I would close my eyes and think that by burying my head deep, my troubles would go away. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Lost-Forever,

I still think about you. When certain songs come on the radio, or I see a skateboarder in the street, or even when I see guys who shares your slight, but overwhelmingly cute overbite, I think of you.

I’ll always think about you.

Being my first boyfriend, my first love, my first lover – well, I should remember you, right? Oh, but it hurts.

Do you remember staying at my house those weekends, hiding from my grandfather? Do you remember the day we lost our virginity, and how afraid you were that you might hurt me? We used to take showers together, and you hated washing your hair but you’d let me wash it for you. Do you remember? I do. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: abortion, Ex Boyfriend, first love, pregnancy, promises, secrets, termination

Dear love,

Is it really that hard to say that you love me in front of someone else? I don’t understand. I listen to you talk to a friend on the phone and you end the conversation with, “I love you!” You do it so easily because you know no one is going to mistake that love as anything other than the love of a friend for another friend.

Then, last night, when I called you and you were with someone else, and when I said, “I love you,” you fell silent. You tried to compensate with something about having a good night, or seeing me soon, but the pause and missing profession of love was evident, palpable, tangible. I realize it’s because of multiple reasons, who you were with not wanting to or ready to answer questions, and also because, knowing your own feelings, you fear they would show more than the love you expressed to your friend. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: letter, Letter to Boyfriend, Letter to Lover, Love Letter, unsent letter

I know you probably don’t think about it too often, how the hundreds of not thousands if not hundreds of thousands of women probably fantasize about you, being with you, dating you, loving you, etc. I assume that one of the things that probably comes with fame is being able to somehow be immune of ignorant of the lust and fanaticism of those who watch you on television, in the movies, or on the stage.

But I wonder sometimes if you truly understand what that means to be wanted and lusted after by so many women.

Anyway, I won’t say that I’m your biggest fan, because that is a bit too book/movie Misery for my comfort, and I’m not certain I’d even say I am a fan, per se. I enjoy watching you on House. I like that character you play, and yet, I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about you personally, except that I just found out today that you’re married and have kids. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: cancer, doctor, house, james wilson, letter to robert sean leonard, robert sean leonard

Do you remember back when we were kids? Some days, I remember it like it was yesterday and some days I try really hard to forget. Life wasn’t so good back then, and yet, we both had it so much better than most, at least, most of the people we knew.

I know you never understood why I was so unhappy. You were the cheerful one, always with a smile and those blue eyes. Mom even said recently that you were one the boys always made comments about. See, they made comments about me too, but I guess she never saw that. You were tiny and cute and I was a big girl, tall for my age with big breasts and a full figure. I was never fat, but it sure seemed Mom thought I was. Oh, yeah, the men looked at me too. I guess Mom forgot that. Seems she forgets a lot of things, perhaps conveniently. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: family, letter, Letter to Sister, sibling rivalry, siblings, sisterhood, sisters

Dear friends and fellow readers and writers,

I know it’s been a long time since Unsent Letters has been updated. I need to apologize to everyone for that.

Unsent Letters was a brilliant idea that came at an inopportune moment, and unfortunately, it was piled on to a list of things to do that was too big, too heavy and the weight of that list bent the support holding it. What this means for you guys is that Unsent Letters took a backseat while other more immediate concerns were dealt with, including: survival, health issues, sleep… you know, minor stuff, and then also other obligations I had created that quite frankly can only be best described as saying: I bit off more than I could chew.

Partly this was because I didn’t plan well going into all these new projects; partly this was because Unsent Letters did better and received more response than I could possibly imagine it would. In less than two weeks, I’d received over 200 submissions almost immediately upon putting out the news, and that was before the site even indexed in Google! Read the rest of this entry »

My love,

I have a confession to make to you, a horrible confession that I know I will never have the courage to tell you to your face.

I love you. You know I love you more than I have loved anyone in my life, so that’s not my confession.

My confession is that I have lied to you.

Do you remember when I told you that I had left behind my old life when I came to you?

I lied. Read the rest of this entry »

To Whomever it may Concern:

I confess that I have been disloyal to my character, dishonest with myself and afraid to be me.

I love him only because I have no one else. He would be at my side at the drop of a hat. He can’t afford to provide me with the basics in life and uses the word of God to manipulate me into staying. I left him for the 52nd time this year and I am lonely. If I were to call him he would run right over.I asked him why he tolerates me and he says its because he loves me.We don’t really love each other; we love the drama. If it wasn’t for the drama this relationship would bore the hell out of me. Read the rest of this entry »