Sunday, May 30, 2010

what is this?


Welcome to The Letter Project!

Wherein I challenge you to write 52 letters in 52 weeks. Just one a week. Not hard at all.

I used to be a prolific letter writer. I kept in touch with relatives, neighbors who moved away, and friends from every part of my life. I was always on top of birthday cards and Christmas cards and every other kind of card. I had boxes and boxes of stationery. In fact, one of my favorite birthday gifts ever was when I turned 10 and my parents gave me a set of personalized stationery. I still have a piece of it. It was the coolest!

But then along came 4 kids. And email. And Twitter and Facebook and texting. And now? I send out a pre-printed Christmas letter every year (usually in February) and that's about it. I rarely use stamps. The only thing I ever drop in the mailbox around the corner from my house is bill payments.

And you know what? I miss it!

You know what else? I never GET letters either. As fun as writing letters is, getting them is ten times better. But you don't GET letters if you don't WRITE them.

So here's the challenge.

Get a pen. (Remember those?) And paper. Loose-leaf, printer paper, whatever you've got and think of who you want to surprise with a letter. Because in this day and age, a letter, written by hand and stuck in an envelope, IS a surprise. And a gift. It doesn't have to be sappy, or mushy. It can be newsy or brief or even sassy. Just write it!

Every week, I'll have a prompt... I'll tell you who I'm writing to and maybe even share the letter. We'll talk about fun stationery and stamps and handwriting. But each week, we're writing one little letter and sending it off.

We start tomorrow.

Who's in?

8 comments:

  1. I love this idea and I'm in!

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  2. I love this idea but know that I wouldn't finish it. I had several penpals until last year and finally had to admit that it was becoming more of a chore than enjoyment. I have TONS of stationery, though, and lovely pens, so maybe I will do it occasionally.

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  3. I'm in...I love reconnecting with people and this would be fun! Great idea!

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  4. Awesome, awesome idea!! Count me in :-)

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  5. I used to, too!! I used to be the queen of 1-800 numbers, so I would get mail!! (Because I was just a weird kid!!) I'm in - what's our topic?? Who's our topic?? I was thinking of writing my kids notes this Summer, so they would understand the joy of mail, too. I have so many things I'd like to tell them...maybe I should write my husband, too? Although he sleeps right next to me and comes home every night, with four kids, we hardly ever say what needs to be said!!

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  6. Shea, I am right there with you. Four kids + activities + dh's long hours=no time. I swear our marriage is run on texts.

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