Start 2014 Write – My Pen Pal

Do you love to get letters in the mail? So much of our mail is junk.  Catalogs, credit card applications, political ads, and coupons arrive in my mailbox every day.  Then there are the bills. No one likes getting bills in the mail.  But, what I do get excited about is something that is hand written.  When something arrives hand written, you know it is a card, an invitation, a thank you, or….maybe….a letter.  When is the last time you received a letter, a hand written letter from someone?

The ESTELLA SOCIETY blog decided to encourage writing by asking for bloggers to sign up.  By signing up, I agreed to be assigned to another blogger, anywhere in the world, and write letters to that person over the course of the year.  I remember having a pen pal at some point in my childhood.  I can’t tell you the person’s name or where they lived, but I remember writing letters to someone.  I think I signed up through a magazine or something.

Our ancestors only had letters to communicate with each other.  I know my mom still has her letters from my father.  I love finding postcards from the early 1900’s and reading what someone wanted to share with a friend or family member that lived maybe in the next town or maybe across the country.  I also love books written in epistolary form.  One of my favorites was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel. I also loved I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan. I just recently purchased Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation. I love reading letters.

Last week, I received my pen pal assignment and I am super excited to get to know and share letters with Carey of careysbookproject.wordpress.com .  In reading her blog and following her twitter feed, HERE, I’ve noticed that we have several things in common.  I am excited to learn more about her through our letters to each other.

If you haven’t written a letter to someone in awhile, I highly recommend getting out some paper and a pen and writing to someone you haven’t talked to in a long time.  You may just start an exchange that will bring joy to both of your lives.