I think the art of letter writing is quickly becoming a lost art in this time of instant technology communications. We now use email and text to communicate almost to the point that even the telephone is quickly waning in use. We use shorthand, abbreviations and forward information so we don’t have to write a full letter
I have a scrapbook that my great grandmother kept of post cards that she received from her husband and siblings. When I read the post cards they are little notes about everyday life. They have managed to last long after all those who wrote them are long gone. These postcards in just a few sentences are windows in to the lives of my family years ago.
One of the things I do each month is write a note to a some of my of friends and acquaintances. I am not sure what the recipients think but I am hoping they enjoy finding something in their post box that isn’t junk mail or a bill. When I started this adventure at the beginning of the year I struggled to write a note of four or five sentences. I wasn’t sure what to write or how to start, how to finish, or tie it all together. With practice, like any art form I find that writing these notes to my friends is getting easier to do. I no longer struggle and my messages are becoming more personal in nature to each recipient . Letter writing is also a different form of writing from my blog, my book, my emails and definitely my texts. Challenges of writing in different genres causes me to become a better writer in each of them. It is a continuum of learning.
It has also resulted in some of my friends reciprocating. Just yesterday I received two notes from two friends who I recently had written to. What a wonderful thing to get. Those notes from my friends said I am thinking of you in a very concrete real way that trumps everything else that happened that day, the trials of the job, the rotten weather, how I feel, and everything else. It was a reflection of the letters I had written back at me.