Wednesday, September 14, 2016

A Letter in the Mailbox

A recent letter I mailed

With the invention and then popularity of email and social media the art of writing a letter or card and mailing it to a friend or family member seems to be diminishing. I want my children to experience the fun of receiving a letter in the mail and writing someone.

I remember growing up and the excitement of hearing from a relative who lived a distance away. My aunt would write my mom and catch her up on all of my dad's family that lived around her. In return, my mom would write back and let her know how we were all doing. I would read and reread those letters from my aunt. With long distance phone calls being so expensive and the internet many years away this was a popular form of communication. 

I have friends now that admit that sometimes they do not check their mail box for days ... why? Well for the most part the mail these days brings bills or even better, and especially at this time of year, political advertisements.

So, my mission right now, starting with my family is to help bring back this lost art form ... letter writing! And, to make it a little more interesting ... creating a pocket letter to mail off to a pen pal or decorating an envelope to mail a note in helps get my girls on board. Now, my son is not an easy sell on this but, I encouraged him the other day to just grab a piece of notebook paper and write out his thank you letter to his grandparents rather than text them to thank them for a birthday gift. It was a sweet note and I think expressed his thanks much better than a text message. I know his grandparents enjoyed getting that traditional thank you, too. 

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