The lost art

Last Sunday I sat on my front deck and hand wrote letters to friends and family.

My step mom and I have had mulitple conversations about the lost art of hand written letters. In the age of texting, facebook, blogging, cell phones, and e-mails the art of hand written letters seems lost. It is a sad loss.

When I was 10 or 11 my great grand mother wrote me a letter. The stationary she used was bright yellow

These are a few of my experiences of letter writing:

When I was in AZ visiting my grandparents, who are not connected to cell phones and computers, I noticed how they wait for each day's mail. The mail is a connection to family and the ouside world. Most days thier mail was filled with donation requests, bills and junk mail.

A friend of ours relocated to help his parents. I forward some mail to him once a month. In his mail I always tuck a littlehand written note. The other day he mentioned how much he looks forward to my notes.

My sister just got married and has been busy for much visiting. I got a letter from her last week. In the letter was two letters- a typed letter to our family in general and a hand written letter just to me. It was surprising how different the hand written personal letter felt vs the typed letter.

Sunday, when I wrote those letters, one of those letters went to a family friend. Yesterday, I got a call from my sister in law. My friends husband had just passed away Tuesday. Before it had happened I had already sent her a note telling her how much she means to us and how her kindness had helped me in a tough time.

The art of hand written letters is an old, out of date way of communicating. Today, there are so many forms of fast and easy communication. The act of sitting down writing a letter is a slow and intentional way of thinking of someone with no distractions. The gift of a hand written letter is your heart.

Happy writing,
Denise