Send Love Today is a nonprofit organization that provides emotional support to brain tumor patients and their families in the form of cards and small gifts.

Do you have a little bit of time on your hands to commit to jotting a few notes to people who could use some encouragement and uplifting? Go to the site and read more about this great organization and see if you can do something to help.

And if you can’t right now, do pass it on!

Here’s a great craft project for those of you who collect postcards.

Check out the hanging postcard collage!

Dream Sequins is doing a project called “Postcards from My Hometown” over at her blog. Looks like fun… go check it out!

Liss over at A Memory Forever is making a new meme or game or pay-it-forward or whatever cool name you want to call it.

She’s asking people to become Snail Mail Angels and for them to inspire others to do the same. Who knows what it will turn into, but let’s give her a hand in encouraging people to write more letters.

Head over to her announcement post.

An Ethical Will is a document plainly understood as a legacy letter. Traditional ethical wills, originating in the Biblical period, were the responsibility of fathers to transmit ethical values to their sons. Contemporary ethical wills are written at every age, often in times of transition and personal challenge by men and women alike. – Excerpt from Life-Legacies by Rachel Freed

When I became a mother I started writing letters to my son because, at first, I was afraid I wouldn’t be up to the task of motherhood and it seemed inevitable that I’d mess it up in some way and that eventually he would do what all kids frequently do… torment their parents about all the ways they messed up their children resulting in years of therapy and thousands of dollars in “couch time”. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if my son had a chance to know me as I am NOW when he is a baby because by the time he is able to have adult conversations with me I will be a vastly different person than I am now. I will be a different mom than I first was and he will never have a way to know that FIRST mommy that I used to be.”

As I wrote these letters I found myself passing on bits of advice and other things I thought were important, little things I wondered if my boys would ever sit still long enough for me to tell them, things they would probably just roll their eyes at. To be fair, I never appreciated the advice people gave me until I got well into my 20’s. I think that’s just human nature, a simple issue of maturity.

Today I ran across a web site that talks about legacy letters or ethical wills. These are documents you can write to pass on your values to your children or grandchildren as a legacy to them, just like you might pass on your grandmother’s tea set or whatever.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had documents like this from our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and many many more way back to hundreds of years to the past? What a fabulous legacy! Would you consider writing one to your children or other relatives?

Go check out the site at Life-Legacies. The site has some sample legacy letters as well as a free e-newsletter that contains tips that will help you make your own letters. At the site you can also read about how legacy letters can not only benefit those who come after you but how it can help you in your life today.

It’s time for another installment of “Random Acts of Letter Writing“! (These are quickly becoming my favorite pasttime!)

Our “victim” this time will be Richard B. Griffin, prolific columnist, who has recently written an article about letter writing for Wicked Local Cambridge. In this article he speaks of writing letters to his friend Bob, but also mentions the father of essayist Anne Fadiman who said, “the morning mail functions as the voice of the unpredictable and keeps alive for a few minutes a day the keen sense of the unplanned and the unplannable.”

So, let’s be inspired by this. Go read his article, then go forth and help Mr. Griffin keep alive the keen sense of the unplanned. He can be reached at:

Richard B Griffin
17 Howland St
Cambridge, MA 02138-1919

Just so none of you think I’m a big, creepy stalker… his phone number is on his web page and his address is easily searchable in the online white pages and I matched the two up. I think someone who puts his phone number on his web site probably isn’t too worried about someone like me finding him.

Don’t forget to register for the
Handmade Card Giveaway.
Entry deadline is May 15, 2009!
CLICK HERE!

a few pieces of mail art

Struts Gallery in Canada is holding a mail art challenge. They are asking the question, “What can you send us without and envelope?”

They are accepting submissions for the entire month of May. You can send them to:

NAKED POST
Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre
7 Lorne Street
Sackville NB
Canada E4L 3z6

[photo credit: ame nielsen]

photo credit: tangobaby

Please go read the story with these links: original story and the latest update

One of the things Tangobaby is asking for (besides basic survival necessities) is letters of encouragement. On the update page she talks about this and gives an email address where you can send notes that might uplift Kelaya’s spirit. If you can manage some time, please send a note.
 

I ran across something today that is really cool. It’s called a Holley Portrait, named after a guy who came up with a clever way to do a typographic self-portrait involving his thumbprint and text. I’d never heard about them until I ran across Daniel’s web site that has a few. How clever!

As I’m always on the lookout to find some new and interesting way to write a letter, why not a Holley Portrait Letter? Go over to the site and read about how to make them. Then, instead of doing the traditional portrait, why not put a letter into it instead — the type of letter that someone would keep, like a “how I feel about you” letter or a “you’ve made an impression on me” kinda note. Or do a smaller version with all five fingers in a “bouquet” for “five reasons I love you” or “five reasons why I’m lucky to have you as a friend”, etc. You get the idea.

Have fun!

Okay, I’ve found our next “victim” of random acts of letter writing.

Nigel Alston of the Winston-Salem Journal wrote a great column about an acquaintance of his who wrote a letter for each of the 40 days of Lent. Mr. Alston says he was inspired by his friend’s tradition and decided to try it himself and found it gratifying.

I think it would be nice to send Mr. Alston a note and tell him how great he is for passing along the inspiration to his readers. I hope you will do another one of these with me since it turned out to be so much fun with Erin. Who knows what will happen.

Here is the article: Sending a Note of Thanks Give the Season Meaning

Here is the address:

Nigel Alston
c/o Winston-Salem Journal
P.O. Box 3159
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102

Please leave a comment if you are playing!