Today, I mailed a birthday card and yesterday I mailed 4, all for the same day, April 19th. It has always amazed me that I personally know 5 people who share April 19th as the day of their birth. And I am sure there are oh so many more that I just might get to meet in the future! Sending mail has become so fun and rewarding.
The other day I was perusing the internet for articles and quotes on “the lost art of letter writing” and I came across a wonderful little article in The Guardian called From me with love: The lost art of letter writing. The author, Jon McGregor, invited strangers to send him a letter in the post. After 3 years he is still receiving letters. The article is well worth a read but I’ll share a letter excerpt that I simply love. (bold emphasis my own)
…is from a retired postal worker in Alberta, Canada – Ken Sears. He writes about the letters he sorted during his career, and how he learned to spot the ones from prison, from lovers, from the person with hypergraphia, or people behaviorally compelled to write; and about how now, in retirement, despite a lifetime of seeing most of the mail he sorted as just so much landfill, he continues to write letters, “Because it’s a big, cold universe, and it feels just a little warmer believing there’s somebody out there, somewhere, who knows you’re still alive.”
I simply love that sentiment. Beautiful! I really do feel that way as well!
Jon McGregor talks a lot in the article about how he grew up writing lots of letters and he collected pen pals “the way other people collected football stickers”. Do people do that anymore? I had several pen pals growing up and recently was trying to remember some of them. Some day I’d love to begin a pen-pal group or app or, well, maybe there is one that exists already. Maybe I’ll have to start another!
At the beginning of this year (as I talked about in my first letter-writing post) I decided I was going to write a letter every day. I wanted to send joy across the miles. I wanted people to go to their mailboxes and find something personal, something that could put a smile on their face or a feeling of love in their hearts knowing that someone was thinking about them. Something other than the bills or nowadays it’s mostly just advertisements.
Because this…
And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
~W.H. Auden
A year ago I found a quick print in Word of a perpetual calendar where you could keep track of birthdays, anniversaries and other special dates. Then you won’t forget anyone. My copy is getting ratty and worn and it doesn’t have a whole lot of room for names. So today I created a new one (from scratch) that I would like to share with you. If you want to get into letter writing or sending cards please enjoy this free perpetual calendar where you can write down names of those you care about, near and far. For today I just have the month of May ready for printing. Finishing the year off won’t take me long and I should have it available for next week.
Enjoy this free printable and start sending love through the “post”. There are 2 formats to choose from, dressed up bright or plain. Enjoy!
Do any of you have pen pals you regularly write to?
Kindler of Joy! 