Snail Mail

Isn't it the best when you open your mailbox and amid all of the bills and junk mail there is a precious gem with your name on it?  You open it up and it is always an unexpected surprise to hear from a great friend...in the mail.  Letters are one of my favorite things.  Now, I have to admit, I used to be a LOT better at sending snail mail than I am now, but I'm hoping in the next month I'll have a little more free time to write more letters.

I keep all the letters that people write to me (ok I know, I'm a bit of a packrat).  If I go under my bed at home I'll find letters from all occasions - from get well letters, to just saying hi, to camp mail, or happy birthday.  There's something special about letters, different from e-mails.  It's like a little piece of someone wrapped up and mailed off.  You can pull it back out forever and have that special memory of that person.

One of my all time favorite letters that I've written is from when I was 11 years old.  It was my first summer at camp and I hated it.  I tried every way I could to get picked up or sneak out.  My grandmother gave me a letter a few years ago that I had written to her.  It is hysterical, I'll have to try and pull it out next time I go home.  I went on and on about how much I hated camp and how I would do anything if she just picked me up.  I think the last line was something like, there is no sunshine in my day.  Looking back on it I always burst into laughter since I ended up adoring camp and going back for ten years, but sometimes that's what letters will do to you.  Bring back a little piece of something that would have otherwise been lost in time.

Do you write letters to people?  I challenge you (and myself) to spend a little time this week writing someone you love a letter, you can be sure they'll appreciate it and it will brighten their day.