The Letter-Writing Challenge of July, 2016

Today I write to confide in you, Dearest Reader, the challenge that has been laid at my feet, and share with you the fun being had in the process!

My Dearest Sister, an accomplished collector of papers, quills, inks, and wax seals, had a brainwave of an idea that we try, for a month, to only communicate using the written word.  None of our usual daily phone calls, texts, social media communications, or any other sneaky way to message.  To use only the NZ Postal Service, or a delivery to the letterbox.  

It took me two short seconds to agree to this marvelous and beautiful idea, and we set a date, 8^th August, for the challenge to end.  Funnily enough, about 3 hours later I received a phone call from Dearest Sister, as she had already forgotten her original challenge!  It is so easy in this world of instant gratification, to pick up one’s phone to ring, to Google, to browse, to pry (or stalk as I like to call it!).

We are on to Day Three, and I have already received two most beautiful, charming and hilariously funny letters from Dearest Sister, as well as sending two of my own missives. The first, a letter; the second, a handmade card.  I like the idea of adding a memento to the envelope; an image cut out of a magazine perhaps that caught my imagination, a crossword puzzle, a couple of stickers.

There certainly is an art to letter-writing, one that we perhaps may lose with the now-frequent use of email.  I don’t know many people who don’t have or use an cellphone that you can phone or text or email, at any time of the day or night.

So this challenge, although still in infancy, is a wonderful and fun way of reminding oneself of how news was shared in times past, arrangements were made, and how taking the time to hand write or even type a personal letter to a dear friend gives one a sense of well-being, of accomplishment, of closeness.

Do you think we’ll make it through the month?  Will we run out of things to write about? Will we tire of this game of attaching a stamp to an envelope every day? Share your thoughts!

 

Gorgeous wax seal

Loving the size of the envelope!

My collection of letters has started!