The Month of Letters…

This was a bittersweet month.

I remember with great joy writing to my penpals, various and sundry all across the US and even some overseas. I remember doodled envelopes and inside jokes and to this day I get giddy with anticipation just checking the mail. “Is the mail here yet?” or “Did you bring in the mail?” has ever been a popular refrain in my home.

I didn’t get a lot of mail this month, which was disappointing. Peter Ellis is an awesome friend from whom I got TWO mail items! But that was all. From some others, though,  I got acknowledgements of the receipt of my letter via Twitter, Facebook, text, or email.  From others, it was just like tossing letters into a void.

I just came back in from sending off my last two letters. A long belated thank-you note and the ceremonial last letter that I had promised myself at the start would go to my best friend in Poland.

I have a few parcels to mail as well, but that will be different. A little #lettermo hangover but not the real thing anymore. So while I was sad to not get much mail myself, I did find it fun and nostalgic to make some time and space in my life to actually sit down and WRITE a longhand letter. I have found that my handwriting has disintegrated from disuse and that writing longhand makes my wrist hurt (because I write with a death grip on my pen and always have). Other than that, I’m not sure what else to take away from this project- accomplishment, disappointment, nostalgia, all of the above?

But here’s what I do know- the people to whom I wrote found unexpected joy in their mailbox. They found reason to ask “Has the mail come yet?” because they wondered if they might have something special waiting there. And really, at the end of the month, that’s enough for me.