| THE EPISTOLARIAN |

This past weekend, I attended Lotusland Celebrates at Ganna Walska’s Lotusland in Montecito, California, at the invitation of the event designer, Merryl Brown. Hosted by Martha Stewart and Jane Lynch, with support from Oscar de la Renta, the evening honored Ganna Walska while raising funds to preserve her extraordinary gardens.

I first visited Lotusland in college with my Aunt Robin, who loves to tend to her own smaller garden in Montecito. Though at the time I had been moved by the wide variety of plants and trees, what stayed with me most was the idea of a woman devoting her life to her garden.

Ganna Walska was one of the twentieth century’s great originals. Born in Poland, she first pursued a career as an opera singer before turning her attention to a very different masterpiece. In 1941, coincidentally the same year Martha Stewart was born, Walska purchased an estate in Montecito and spent the next four decades transforming it into Lotusland, an astonishing botanical masterpiece unlike any other. With extraordinary collections of plants from around the world, she created an expression of her imagination. Before her death, she ensured that Lotusland would be preserved as a public garden so that generations to come could experience its beauty.

Lotusland Celebrates exists each year to support that legacy. The evening raises funds to care for the garden, ensuring that Walska’s vision continues to grow long after her lifetime. As I wandered the paths once again, I couldn’t help but think about what it means to leave behind something that continues to nourish people after we’re gone.

During the evening, Martha Stewart gave a beautiful talk. She remarked that “having a garden is the secret to a happy life.” She also recalled one of Ganna Walska’s own sayings: “I am an enemy of the average.”

A garden creates a place of refuge. In doing so, we refuse an average existence. We cultivate and shape our experience.

Listening to Martha speak about Ganna, I felt as though I were witnessing three generations of women: the one who has passed, the one deep into her legacy, and myself, just beginning the making of my own garden.

Ganna Walska cultivated a garden. Martha Stewart cultivated everyday life, showing generations that the ordinary work of caring for a home could become an act of creativity worthy of elevation.

I think about my own work in much the same way. I would just slightly adjust Martha’s wisdom for myself to say, “having a[n inner] garden is the secret to a happy life.”

For me, it’s never just about the wax seals or the letters, it’s about the way these rituals bring us back to ourselves and others, a returning to the garden, a returning to our own humanity.

I am reminded of Tatiana Castro Abuchaibe, who was crowned Miss Colombia in 1994. For the final question, she was asked if there were a fire in a museum and she could save either the art or the museum guard dog. Without hesitating, and appalled by the premise of the question, she said, “Oh, for heaven’s sake, the dog!” She continued, “Paintings are art. Art is given away, like love and peace. Los animales, las plantas y las personas son vida... la vida se guarda.” Animals, plants, and people are life... life is to be protected.

Her answer came as Colombia was emerging from the terror of the Medellín cartel, and only months before footballer Andrés Escobar would be murdered after scoring an own goal in the World Cup. I cannot help but see the parallels with our own time. We still live in times of war, and we also have new technologies with great potential to both help and harm humanity. I find myself returning to those final words: "La vida se guarda." Life is to be protected.

There is a picture I love of Ganna, which shows her in one of her pools with giant lily pads and blooming water lilies. To me, it looks like she has emerged from the garden, the same sustenance, the same dirt and water as the plants.

I loved the image so much that I adapted it into a painting and a wax seal.

The seal is inspired by Lotusland, but it carries a larger reminder: "remember the garden." I couldn't help but notice that all three of us began our great gardens around age 40, and that we are simply at different stages of tending them. Ganna Walska purchased Lotusland at forty. Martha Stewart began building the work that would define her legacy in her forties. As I turn forty this year, I find myself at the threshold of my own life's work. Perhaps forty is when the first seeds of a life's work begin to germinate, laying the foundation for the next forty to sixty years.

The garden may be literal in the case of Ganna Walska and Martha Stewart, or it may be metaphorical, in my case. One day, long after I'm gone, I hope that if anyone remembers my work, it is because it helped them remember the garden. To remember the importance of living things. To tend our inner world as carefully as we would a great garden. Each of us is called to cultivate our own little Eden, whatever form that may take, whether through gardening, letters, seals, poetry, painting, or something entirely our own. Then, when it has flourished, to invite others inside.

The Butterfly

One of the most popular seals during the gala was the Butterfly Seal, which I just unveiled last week. The first 11 Collector's seals sold instantly, but I have four of this design remaining. It is beautiful plain or painting, and has spectacular detail.

One of the most popular

Preorder The Handwritten Life

The Handwritten Life is now available for preorder. Thank you to everyone who has already reserved a copy. Your encouragement has carried me through this long process, and I can't wait to finally share it with you!

Currently, I'm deep in edits and formatting, and I'm starting to plan some fun launch parties and readings for this October and November. Would you like a reading in your city? If so, please let me know where you think would be a wonderful place for me to unveil this beauty.

With love,