My favorite time of day is early morning.  I like to get up and catch the sunrise and watch the new day come in fresh and full of promise.

I like to use this time alone to reflect and catch up on letter writing.

Now, I know it would be so much easier and quicker to make a phone call or send an email or text, but there is just something extraordinary about receiving a handwritten letter in the mailbox from a friend.

I have an old writing desk that I like to sit at to write, and it is stocked with plenty of stamps, pens, stationery, envelopes, and an address book.  Everything you need to write a letter.  I even have an old folder from school full of fun stickers to use as well.

My friend Kitty brought a magazine to my house yesterday that she just thought I would enjoy.  It has an article about aprons and family homesteads that she thought I would like to read.

Kitty is around the same age my mother would be, had she lived, and I have to appreciate her kind, motherly friendship for many years.

Now, I could have just called Kitty and thanked her for the magazine, but here’s the thing.  She didn’t have to bring that magazine all the way over to my house while I was away yesterday.  But she did.  She was thinking of me, which is not a small thing when another person takes a second out of their busy day to think of another. 

The very least I can do is jot off a quick note and pop it in the mail.   Miss Kitty made my day.  Why not surprise her and make her day too?

Way back in 1988, shortly after I met the boy who would become my husband, we started exchanging letters in the mail.  We lived 23 miles away from each other, and neither one of us had cars.  It was also long-distance to call each other back then to keep our parents happy because we didn’t “reach out and touch someone” remember that slogan?

We wrote letters. Lots and lots of funny, sweet,  silly notes.  I still have all of those letters.  Even after we got cars, and it was no longer long-distance to call, we still wrote to each other.

There is just something special about a surprise letter in the mail.

This second letter is going to a friend with whom I used to do yoga. Suppose you are like me and have trouble keeping your letters straight on no lined paper.  Just take a ruler and lightly make lines on the form.  After your ink dries, you can gently erase the lines.

This last letter is going to my dear friend, Alta, in Pennsylvania.

She and I have been exchanging letters for nearly 20 years.  We met in a Yahoo Group in 2001 that was devoted to Gladys Tabor’s books.  The yahoo group book club eventually faded away, but the friendship between Alta and I stayed.   She is also older than me and has been an excellent mother figure all these years. 

We even stayed with her and her husband at their home in Pennsylvania one magical Christmas and experienced a Christmas carol singing at her quaker church- built in 1804. 

What about you?  Do you write letters?
Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear if you do;  I want to bring this gentle art back.

xoxo,

Lindy