{"id":222,"date":"2025-11-06T16:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlydaffodils.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2025-11-06T16:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:30:07","slug":"dear-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlydaffodils.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/dear-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background\">This is the letter I wrote for the <a href=\"https:\/\/letterslive.com\/dear-london\/\">Dear London<\/a> competition organized by <a href=\"https:\/\/letterslive.com\/\">Letters Live<\/a>. When I first saw the call for participation, I was so excited, and I knew I had to write something since London was, at some point, an important part of our lives. It was there before New York. I spent hours during summer to draft a letter, then convinced myself not to submit. But just a week before the deadline, after we came back from my 60th birthday celebrations, I typed the letter below in 8 hours and sent it immediately before talking myself out of it a second time. Is it the best I could have done? No. But the process reminded me so many things, specifically myself at the beginning of my 5th decade, which turned out to be exactly what I needed at the beginning of my 6th decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-6-background-color has-background\">My letter was one of the 3,000 submitted, unfortunately not among the ones shortlisted. I loved the experience of dreaming and waiting, and I am especially proud of myself for submitting, not listening the annoying voice in my head who is always against my writing. There was also a word limit of 500, which I did not handle well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear London,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been six years since I said goodbye to you at Heathrow on a late August day. It wasn\u2019t a farewell. Even though Oxford increasingly took more of my time with my son studying there, you knew I loved you dearly, a first love, you might say. I was going to come back by myself, for myself, and we would bounce back to where we were before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We met during my thirties. For you, I was just one of the millions visiting from abroad. But for me, it was an overdue union. For many years, I had lived with Holmes and Poirot, wandering your streets with them, searching for clues and the culprit, and occasionally visiting the mighty Scotland Yard. I stayed at the Bertram Hotel with Miss Marple, and I was with the Bennet sisters attending balls, hoping to encounter Bingley or Darcy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our bond grew over the years, during which I used all the excuses to fly in. It was a walk by the river, or a glass of wine in a tranquil garden, or a tea with a book that made me fall in love with you. Then came the idea of moving in with you during my 50<sup>th<\/sup> birthday celebrations, a ten-day visit I took with my kids before dropping the younger one off at Oxford. The idea turned into a plan to rent a small flat and start writing the mystery novel that was growing in me. What a perfect life for the fifth decade!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then life happened, and I drifted away without a farewell or recognising what our relationship meant to me. When I finally returned last November, it dawned on me that I had left a part of myself with you, and I had forgotten all about the version of me when I was in love with you. I carried a strong feeling of returning home, long forgotten but much missed. For that, I blame you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should have held on to us and created excuses for me to stay, like a handsome Brit. You were my first love. I was willing to let go of my hometown, everyone in it, and to start with you. But you did nothing.&nbsp; And I was too confused with life to appreciate all the things you could have provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I live across the pond, starting my sixth decade in a city as vibrant as you. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I am happy where I am, enjoying my life close to my now adult children. But I failed to write my mystery book. For that, I also blame you. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to write a crime novel without your inspiration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But my dearest London, I decided to pursue myself when I was with you, despite the decade gone by. So, expect to see me frequently, especially during the gloomiest months, trying to get inspired by the weather, by the fog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See you soon, my love. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the letter I wrote for the Dear London competition organized by Letters Live. When I first saw the call for participation, I was so excited, and I knew I had to write something since London was, at some point, an important part of our lives. It was there before New York. I spent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dear London - Early daffodils<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/earlydaffodils.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/dear-london\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear London - Early daffodils\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the letter I wrote for the Dear London competition organized by Letters Live. 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