February 4th is Thank Your Mailperson Day! What can you do to thank the person who delivers your mail?
Please be aware that postal carriers must follow particular gift rules! Please read this article for a nice overview.
The basic idea is:
- Don’t give your postal carrier cash!
- Whatever you give them, if it’s a gift card or something similar, keep at $20 or under.
Now go forth and love the heck out of these folks who slog through the weather on a daily basis to get us our mail. Post some ideas here if you’ve got some good ones. Or tell us what you did for this day. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m getting away from the computer right this second to go figure it out! (I have two postal carriers, one at home, one at my office! I know the one at my office has a weakness for chocolate covered cherries.)
Carla over at 365 Letters is trying an experiment. She’s writing a letter every day to see what happens. Whew, the pressure. CAN SHE DO IT? (Of course she can!) Go root for her because what she is doing is very cool.
Also, apparently it is already working because she is getting a nice round of lovely responses to her missives.
Consider trying it! Maybe it will work out as well for you as it is for her!
Here’s something pretty exciting… a letter writing contest for kids. It launched on inauguration and will end, fittingly, on President’s Day.
So, you better get to cracking!
http://www.adlit.org/our_white_house_contest
A creative lady named Gina, left a comment on a blog I was reading and it was such a good comment about letter writing that I had to share it.
My good friend and I (she lives in another city) decided to write a letter once a month to each other for 6 months. We divided the letter into: what I’m thinking about right now….something interesting I heard lately…what new sensual experience we had (a bubble bath…a great dinner…some interesting recipe) …what we were reading or what piece of art we had stumbled upon we really liked….and a few other minor categories…. The only rule was, of course, we had to hand write it. It was a wonderful experience…my friend and I first off discovered we had never seen each other’s handwriting because we always email, message etc. As time went on…we often doodled or even colored the borders around the paper…just because it seemed it brought out the creativity in each of us. It was a wonderful friendship project and we learned so much about each other too.
One of the reasons this idea is so great is that it creates a structured environment in which to write a letter. Often people think their lives are boring or that they have nothing to say. This method actually tells you what to write about. It’s a perfect jumping off spot.
Why not try Gina’s cool idea? Get a friend to do it with you. Set up your categories to write about and then try it for a few months and see how it goes.
[photo credit: soartsyithurts]
Here’s a little mini-challenge for you today (or sometime in the next week).
I have recently added a new site to our fabulous compendium of letter writing links. The site is called Send Something. The site is similar to Postcrossing, conceptually, in that you can go get a random address and mail something to a stranger. However, that’s where the similarity ends. While Postcrossing is for postcards, Send Something can be for just about anything. Users fill out their profiles indicating their hobbies and other interesting things about themselves. What you send is completely up to you. Have fun!
(Thanks, PostMuse, for sending me this.)
Also, I’ve added a new link to the main sidebar that says “Shopping”. I’m collecting interesting places you can shop for stationery and other letter-related goodies. Enjoy.
[photo credit: Marty (S)]
There has been a lot of buzz about the open letter from Barack Obama to his daughters. If you’ve not done so, you can read it over at Parade. It’s a great letter.
I write letters to my kids. Never as well-written as this one, but engaging, tender and hopeful. I’m not sure when they will get them, but I actually put them in the mail so they get postmarked. When the arrive back at the house I put them in a place to save them for the boys for later. I have no idea when they will get them. Hopefully I’ll know when the time is right.
I also like to write letters to the daughter of a friend of mine. Her girl is only three, but I do my best to write her on her birthday and hope my friend saves them. A little blast from the past for when she is older. I have no idea if anyone cares about stuff like that, but I like to do it.
Tell me: do you write to your kids or keep a journal that will live on long after you’re gone? Tell me all about what you do.
Have you ever heard of a round robin letter? I have never done one, but I have heard of them.
It’s a letter where you have a group of people and you basically write letters in a circle — Person 1 sends her letter to Person 2. That person writes a letter and then sends his letter AND Person 1’s letter to Person 3 who writes a letter and sends ALL the letters on to Person 4. The pattern continues until all the letters make it back to Person 1. She then removes her original letter and replaces it with a new one, then sends the whole batch on to Person 2 again. Ad infinitum.
A few years ago someone published something called a Circle Journal which was basically the same idea except you wrote in the book and sent it around. I always thought that one was a little awkward because who is the lucky one who gets to keep the book when you’re done?
The bummer with the round robin letter is that you don’t get to keep any of the other letters. On the other hand, you do end up with a selection of your own letters which is like having a diary of sorts, I suppose.
Recently I read this news article about a woman who participated in a 64-year-long round robin letter. Can you imagine??
In our links collection, I have a link to a site called Robin Flies Again. That one will take you to a 50-year-long round robin and there you can actually see some of the letters.
Go check both of these stories out. Maybe it will inspire you to start your own!
Here is an inspiring story about a young gentleman, a kind and honorable boyscout, who decided he wanted to make a difference for soldiers serving in Iraq.
If this doesn’t inspire you to write a letter, I don’t know what will!
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1376065,5_1_WA14_GILETTERS_S1.article#
As if we’ve not had enough celebrating already, let’s all continue the festive holiday spirit by joining together to celebrate UNIVERSAL LETTER WRITING WEEK, January 8-14.
Yes, it’s time to pull out all the stops. Drag out the fancy papers and envelopes, buy a fresh set of stamps and maybe a new pen to celebrate and get writing!
Who are you writing this week? How about a letter writing party??
Share your great ideas of how we can all celebrate letter writing week!
I just ran across a link that I went back and added to my recent post about Time Capsule Letters.
The link is to a website called FutureMe. This is a clever idea that is based on the concept of a virtual time capsule. You write a letter to yourself and then designate a delivery time for the future. And POOF! On that date the letter will be delivered to your emailbox. To maximize your fun, set the delivery date far enough ahead that you will have forgotten about the letter by the time you receive it.
Try it out and post back in a few months and tell me how it goes!
