Alexandra Stoddard - Grace Notes

To my godmother, Mitzi Christian, who gave me a bluebird of happiness pin when I was a little girl and who actively nurtured my quest, always with grace and love

W rite it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised. In daily life, what distinguishes the master is the using those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more renowned, or what others have used well. In stripping time of its illusions, in seeking to find what is the heart of the day, we come to the quality of the moment. It is the depth at which we live, and not at all the surface extension, that imports.

Then it flows from character, that sublime health which values one moment as another, and makes us great in all conditions, and is the only definition we have of freedom and power.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since I can remember, Ive enjoyed writing down thoughts, ideas, inspirations and practical tips I wanted to remember and put to use in my daily life. These became my grace notes. Whenever I read something, heard something, saw something, felt something or figured out something that rang a bell inside me, I wrote it down. I used little spiral notebooks or pads, anything handy.

But it wasnt until I found myself in a wonderful paper-supply store in Paris in the sixtiesyou may not know it, but the French take their paper stores seriouslythat I discovered the ideal vehicle for recording and preserving my grace notes. I inherited a love for beautiful paper from my mother but over the last few decades Ive let this enthusiasm become something approaching an obsession (recorded in detail in Gift of a Letter). That mild spring day in Paris I went from the Right Bank to the Left Bank in search of four-by-six index cards. The smooth one-hundred-pound paper invited a fountain pen to glide across its surface. I could color-code my notes in pale pink, green, yellow and blue. Even the white cards had a grid of half-centimeter squares in pale lilac or blue. I became addicted to this geometric design that spares me from facing a blank surface.

I went on a binge. I bought up the French file cards in every store I could find. Paper is heavy. Every so often I had to stop at a caf, sip caf au lait, relax, dream up a few grace notes and then continue on my hunt. Nothing but a closed door stopped me from walking in. I was compulsive.

A few years ago I read somewhere that the author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, though flexible about his writing schedule, was insistent on using lined bristol cards. While spiral notebooks are what I use to write my books, these cards are ideal for random thoughts.

During that Paris trip, the seeds of another idea began germinating. Since my days as an art student Ive enjoyed going to museums and buying postcards of paintings and sculpture that I have been struck by. This habit has resulted in an accidental collection. This casual, spontaneous act evolved into the idea for a book, The Postcard cu Art, in which I reproduced many of the postcards Id enjoyed selecting over the years. Ever since childhood Ive loved sending cards to friends with a little scribbled grace notea word of encouragement, a quote, a thought, an insight, a question.

Postcards and my French file cards are of the same size and I have been storing both in shoe boxes, which I have found both comforting and practical. Eventually I had a carpenter build cubbies in my home to store these labeled boxes, floor to ceiling, catalogued by artist, author, and idea. These treasured shoe boxes hold great sources of inspiration for me, and, of course, they are a rich mine of useful references for books and lectures.

Readers often ask me which one of my books I like best and which one was the most fun to write. Invariably it is the one Im writing. I love the intensity of this mysterious creative processI look forward to the challenges, the stimulation and the illumination. In Dr. Samuel Johnsons apt words: The process is the reality. I too am process-oriented. I love the doing, the work. I enjoy abandoning myself to the project, not knowing how it will all turn out.

I have come to understand that there are no beginnings, that everything is interconnected, and I dont like endings. While I enjoy seeking meaning in the unknown, I am particularly exhilarated by the ever-deepening journey of discovery and exploration.

The search for truth and beauty has been going on since the beginning of civilization. As we approach the twenty-first century, we reflect on what has already been expressed that may bring light, truth and life to our own experiences. Whatever has been said before can acquire new meaning through the unique filter of our own character, beliefs, values and consciousness. Wisdom is ageless and timelessa reminder that human nature hasnt changed much since the Stone Age. We have always needed to eat, sleep and bathe, but how we perform these daily functions defines us uniquely. How we think and feel, what attitudes we develop, reveal our values and character.