What's in a letter?

It may not surprise anyone here, but I really enjoy writing. If you were to ask my parents, they'd say I've been a writer since I was in Kindergarten. Now, my spelling has never been as good as it should be, (Which is why I won't play Scrabble.) but that never stopped me from putting pencil to paper while I was growing up.

I think better when I can see my thoughts. I am more in control of my emotions when I take the time to write, whether it's anger, hurt, or exhilaration I'm feeling at the moment. But, that doesn't mean I can always "let the words flow" and write a novel in one go. It's still a process and I get writer's block... a lot.

In the past couple of months, one of my personal projects has been writing letters (seemingly randomly) to different people I know. I have my own reasons as to who I pick to receive these letters. Sometimes, it's because I think they need the pick me up or reassurance. Other times, it's because I just know they love getting mail and knowing someone, somewhere, is thinking of them. Or there are times I write to a specific person because I want to converse with them and there never seems to be enough time to talk deeply throughout my normal day.

Whatever the case may be, I've been writing a lot of letters lately.

And I love it.

It's one of those things I do for other people. I don't need them to write me back or to express gratitude. That's not why I write letters. I do it to spread a little more happiness in the world. Also, it does help with my anxiety to sit down and stop for a few minutes, before returning to my own crazy life.

I don't remember everything I write. I have a swiss-cheese memory anyway, and adding pregnancy brain just limits how far back my mind can remember. Which leads to a lot of sticky notes with reminders for myself.

I've never met someone who doesn't enjoy getting personalized mail. It's a dying art.

Ha, sorry. It's really early and I get carried away in thought while I'm in this space at times. Writing letters isn't just for those who love words and letters and pens, they're for anyone who wants to try and get to know someone else. Birthday cards, drawings, postcards, little notes, all of these things (and I'm sure a few billion more ideas you can find on Pinterest) could count as a "letter".

It takes time to make something, have someone's address, and find a stamp to mail it. Definitely more effort than a text message. However, don't get me wrong, texts and calls are very convenient. Just, different.

While in university for my degree, one major theme kept popping up in my Communications classes. The saying goes, "The medium is the message". Which is Marshall McLuhan's fancy way of saying, the form in which something is presented (paint, charcoal, graffiti, ads, words, letters, phone call, etc.) affects what the message is and what it symbolizes.

And with that, I'll leave it here. Hope you all had a good 4th of July! Or... a regular Wednesday if you don't celebrate the 4th. Bye!