Saturday, March 13, 2010

{ Letter Writing... }


I remember a time when I would get immense pleasure from buying pretty stationery paper on which to write letters to my family.

It was exciting and it was thrilling, I would sit down with the paper and a cup of tea and would just write about my day, about my thoughts and dreams and amongst all this I would have a plethora of questions to my recipient, things I wanted to know, things that I eagerly awaited the answer to in the letter that I was bound to receive in reply.

It was such a pleasure to check the mail box and see a handwritten letter, knowing that the person took the time to sit down, to put pen to paper and to express their thoughts, not just hit a send button, or type a quite sentence through Twitter or Facebook.

It feels to me that through the expansion of technology, we've lost a lot of the personal things that were part of our lives.

Everything is becoming inpersonal, what once was considered an art has now been named "snail mail".

Postcards are no longer exchanged, do you remember when you went on vacation somewhere, the first thing you would do was send a postcard back to the family?

It was a brief glimpse of what you were enjoying, but nowadays, people touch bases through cellphone or text message, even photos are sent through phones or downloaded to computers and emailed to a bunch of people within 5 minutes of reaching your destination.

I often wonder what it will be like when my children are adults? They will never have a stack of letters tied in a ribbon, will never get to sit and read the beautiful handwriting of a grandmother or grea tgrandmother.

I still have letters from some of my husband's first deployments, it was my words on a piece of paper that kept him going, that gave him the strength to get through the separation, but even now with access to email and computers, those are few and far between, it's easier to just punch a bunch of letters on the keyboard of my laptop than take the time to sit down and pass my thoughts through a pen and to paper.

I long to hold on to this feeling just a little longer, to once again open my mail box to find handwritten postcards from all over the country and the world.

So I've decided to hold a Postcard Exchange and I'm hoping you will want to join in. I've seen a few blogs doing the same and thought it would be a lot of fun.

It's very simple. I would love to receive a post card from all 50 States and from around the world and in turn will send out a postcard of my own to those that send me one of theirs. Are you interested?

Even if you're in my State or think that someone already sent me one from your State, I would still like to receive one from you. If you don't have a blog but would still like to join in, just leave me a comment with your email address.

All addresses will be exchanged through email and will not be forwarded to anyone.

As an incentive to participate, once I've collected a postcard from every State, I will hold a giveaway for those that sent them in for a chance to win an Arizona Themed box of goodies, the contents will be a surprise of course.

Please add your name to McKlinky underneath if you want to join in, you can also add the name of your State or Country.




If you do participate in this exchange, won't you take my little button and display it on your blog for all to see? I'm hoping that this will encourage others to make the same or a similar initiative on their blogs, who knows, we may just restart the Letter Writing and Postcard sending craze again.

hhm



All graphics courtesy of Gettyimages

29 comments:

Katrina said...

what a great idea! =) Now I have to go find a postcard! hehe.

Sherry said...

Wow. Thank you for this reminder. I just sent a letter today to one of our young men that just enlisted in the Army and is away at Boot Camp. It made me wonder how I let good 'ole letter writing slip away. I do miss it.

Pamela said...

Great idea, Sandra. Count me in for Rhode Island.

Jenna said...

Count me in for Nebraska. I don't know how to put the little button on my blog. There's no html to copy. Please, help =)

Sylvia said...

Hi Sandra I live in Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K. Count me in. I value hand-written letters as well!

Anonymous said...

Hey !
So FUN,count me in from New Hampshire!
Tannasplace@hotmail.com

Sylvia said...

Sorry didn't put my e.mail
sjrmail@gmail.com

Sylvia

Sweet Woodruff said...

I love writing and receiving letters. We are thinking the same things lately, according to my own post today. I think I want to play along. I have saved every letter and post card I ever got. I'm not a pack rat, but I won't let go of my meaningful mail.

Take care.

Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange a postcard!
monk5@charter.net

Jenna said...

jcsnowbunny@gmail.com

just realized I forgot to put my email address.

Nicole said...

Count me in for colorado!

Melonie said...

My kids and I love to send postcards to family and friends. Put me down for one from Okinawa - and I can also send you some from 2 other states and 1 other country while I'm travelling this spring!
ravenwrites74/at/yahoo/dot/com

Phelan said...

I followed a link from Melony. I would like to join from Kansas
m.niles.phelan at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

Sandra, Sounds like fun! I am from Washington State. I live just across the bridge from Portland, Oregon so if you like I can send you one from there too.....just let me know.

By the way, I love snail mail!

Debbi

faustx2@yahoo.com

Mary said...

What a great idea! I will definitely send you something from lovely Wisconsin. Let me know if you need one from Minnesota as well. I am orginally from there. I'
m not too far from there so I'm sure I could get one.

Thanks!

Mary
maryenglar@yahoo.com

Blessed Beyond said...

I love this idea! Please count me in....
plf114@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

I'd love to send you a postcard from Bermuda!

My email is sousak78@yahoo.com

Kim

Elizabeth said...

Cool idea! I've got a friend who travels alot and she sends a postcard to us from her travels...it's great! I've always loved to buy postcards of places I've been, so count me in on this, Sandra!
Elizabeth (Mississippi)
P.S. Even tho I'm originally from Arizona, it's still brings a warm-fuzzy feeling to hear from that part of the world *smile*

Our neck of the woods said...

Hi Sandra,
I am so excited how cool! I'm so in!
-Marisa

Anonymous said...

guess this would help
kindredmama@gmail.com

Nicki said...

Love to join in,
Nicki
Queensland Australia

Kirstin said...

Is this over? I would love to send one from washington. Do you have an address posted somewhere

Anonymous said...

I started my postcard exchange linky party in Feb and it will remain open till April 4th if you or any of your readers would like to participate.

http://fairfieldhousenj.com/2010/02/24/youve-got-mail/

http://fairfieldhousenj.com/2010/03/25/going-postal/

Your blog is beautiful. I will be returning!

Deborah

Unknown said...

Count me in for North Carolina.

You can email me @

ambitiousgurl4ever [at] gmail dot com

Sarah B. SMITH said...

I wanted to let you know that I didn't forget I got your loving postcard and I am now just sending mine today from texas.. sorry for my tardiness... hope you have a great day!

Jenn said...

I'm an elementary school teacher and my goal is to collect postcards from all 50 states too!

Please e-mail me your address and I'll send you one from my beautiful state of Hawaii!

island_class@yahoo.com

Aloha,
Jenn

Steve and Eden said...

Sandra!
What a great idea! I'd love to participate!! I realize I'm way behind on your blog! Anyway, I'm living in GA and I'd love to exchange postcards! I love snail mail! I adore it! I used to write to family friends all the time and finally quit b/c I'd get a 1 sentence response email or a text. :( I long for the personal. I love personal! Anyway, I'll email you my address and I'll be on the lookout for your address!

Hugs,
Eden

GreenIdMama said...

i would love to join. I live in California!

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