write a letter to one person every month.

i wrote a letter to AB and sent her an article that i had cut out for her months ago and just found in a pile of papers in my room.
so i just squeezed in a letter for january 2009! a good start.

didn’t write any letters during october. october seems to be a stressful month every year. not always in a bad way… part of that ‘stress’ is halloween-related. but there always seems to be a lot due that month for school, plus midterms. many birthdays, etc. lots lots lots to do.
excuses excuses.

okay, so my original entry was three months ago. no matter. i wrote a letter to rk and sent it today. it feels good.

also, while i was traveling i wrote probably about 15 postcards and sent them to people. although they’re not real letters, they are real mail, which is still a delight to receive.

i am truly grateful that i grew up (until the age of 12) without a computer, and (until the age of 16) without the internet. i used to write letters to my cousin all the time. once we started a cassette tape to send back and forth, too. that was fun, until her older brother found it and recorded over our messages in french. wiseass.

anyway, there was also i girl i made friends with as a freshman in high school who left my school after one semester. we became penpals, too. at the end of my written correspondences from her, she says things like, “sorry i haven’t written in a while… everyone is on e-mail now.” then i got a letter printed in fancy font from the computer. then soon after that they end.

but there is something so wonderful and personal about handwriting (manu script). and the delay between letters i think is better suited to the speed at which humans are meant to function. (similar to walking… which always amazes me as the most strikingly natural speed for a human being.) the anticipation in getting a letter… the savoring of it when it arrives… the time you have to compose your response. so very good.

in recent years i’ve written letters on occasion. my favorite thing is to use the papermaking kit i bought to make homemade recycled paper. i write my letter on that, then i use old calendar pages or pretty pages out of magazines to make an envelope.

sealing wax as others have mentioned is also wonderful.

hooray for letters. ^_ and the mail deliverers of the world.