Signed, Sealed, Delivered...By Hand
When I was growing up, the family mailbox was a magic chamber
that delivered cards with good wishes, post cards from interesting places and
an occasional gift from a far-off relative. Today’s mailboxes, however, often are
more of a torture chamber spewing out political post cards, overdue bills and
unwanted solicitations. What used to be a daily treat of checking the mail has
now become another chore in a busy world.
When I pull a hand-addressed envelope out of the mailbox, I get a thrill…is it an invitation, a note from a friend, a thank-you for a nice gesture? Hand-addressed envelopes say to me that someone has taken time to send me something personal. I always save them to open after I’ve gotten in the house, dumped my work-out bag, and let myself sit down and savor the reading experience.
Handwritten notes delivered to my work mail cubby demand the
same reverence. I don’t tear them open in the mail room. I take them back to my
desk and delight in the reading experience.
Think about how you react to what you find in your mail
cubby at work or in your mailbox at home. What’s the first thing you automatically
throw out? But more importantly, what’s the first thing you put aside to read?
Human nature will likely take us to the piece of mail that
looks to be the most personal and least threatening…the handwritten,
individually stamped envelope. How many of those do you receive a week? Not
many, I’d guess.When I pull a hand-addressed envelope out of the mailbox, I get a thrill…is it an invitation, a note from a friend, a thank-you for a nice gesture? Hand-addressed envelopes say to me that someone has taken time to send me something personal. I always save them to open after I’ve gotten in the house, dumped my work-out bag, and let myself sit down and savor the reading experience.
A friend’s young adult daughter recently took on a year-long
personal challenge to hand-write a letter a day during her first year in the
work world. She said she did this when she first moved to Washington DC after
college because she was frustrated that she couldn't keep in touch with her
best friends nearly as well as she could when they all lived in the same city.
Over the course of that year, I received several of her
“one-a-day” notes, not knowing I was part of her personal challenge process. Later
when I found out what she had done, I cherished those notes even more because I
knew that she knew how I love to get cards and letters in the mail. Ultimately
she ended up writing 472 notes in a year!
This same young woman has traveled a good bit
internationally. I love sharing in her experiences through her texts, Instagram
photos and Facebook posts in “real time.” However, I really feel connected to
her travel experiences through the charming handwritten post cards that have arrived
in my mailbox…sometimes days after she has returned from the trip. I keep the
postcards and re-read them living vicariously through her travels.
Recently my mother gifted me a file box of letters that had
been in my parents’ attic for well over 25 years. When I opened the box, I
found dozens of letters neatly stacked in near-perfect chronological order from
my late college years through early adulthood. The letters smelled musty and
were a bit faded, but what a gift to open that box and get a glimpse of my younger
self.
The emotion and connection in the handwritten words floating
out of those letters could never be duplicated today by preserving email
chains, Facebook posts or text messages, even if someone was so inclined to
file them somehow.
In reading these letters, I marveled at which friends were
the most prolific writers. I wondered what questions I had posed to them that
prompted a long epistle back to me. I laughed at the things we knew were
critical in our lives at the time. I was awed by the insight my friends offered
to life challenges we were facing. I loved watching my husband’s
notes change in content and tone as we moved from our early dating days through
our engagement.
Granted, I don’t practice what I preach as much as I would
like to in hand writing notes. I have all the best excuses for not shooting off
a handwritten note – can’t find a stamp, I messed up and can’t backspace to fix
a word I don’t like, I’m missing the right sized envelope…
And while I can’t say I’m willing to take on my young
friend’s “letter a day” challenge, surely I can be more attentive to my
aspiration of staying connected through handwritten notes. Writing by hand
makes me think in a different way than shooting out words through my fingers on
a keyboard. I must be more deliberate. I must allow myself to think through
what I want to say and how I want to say it.
As my young friend so wisely told me…hand writing these 472
letters taught her to be “deliberate with your words and intentional with your
time.”
Not just good rules for writing letters…but good rules for
daily living.
Thanks for inspiring me to send more handwritten notes!
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