Week 1

It's Memorial Day. Have you seen the Pioneer Woman's Coming Home photography project? Seriously, go now and check it out. Soldiers returning to their families. It will make you weep. And make you remember all that we take for granted. And make you think about those who are far from home today, working harder than they ever have on our behalf.

If you have a friend or family member in the military who is deployed overseas, write to him or her this week. If you don't, think of someone who is far from home who could use a handwritten note. Someone studying abroad. Someone who took a job overseas. A neighbor who moved far away.

I'm writing to a neighbor who is stationed overseas for a few years. It's been a tough transition on her kids and she is without her usual support system of girlfriends to help her through those tough parenting moments. If I could package up some sangria, I'd put it in there too. But I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make it through customs.

Who are you writing to this week?

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?