Sincerely Yours

photo source

I love a good letter.  So much so that I have a hard time parting with one, and have a whole collection to prove it.  I have a box of letters back from when Neil and I were dating and engaged.  In the box there are also papers with a variety of doodles (I ♥ Neil, N+F=TLA, etc), movie ticket stubs, and other random paraphernalia that I just could not part with due to the sentimentality of love.  I also have a file folder overflowing with cards, letters, and special notes from people.  Whenever I am feeling discouraged, or having a personal pity party, I like to get out my file and start reading.  I always find it to be a huge dose of encouragement.  Do you ever find an old letter, or something else that reminds you of a person who was very important to you in the past, but for whatever reason your paths don't cross anymore?  I have a whole collection just like that, people who have sent me notes, and for whatever reason the note made an impact on me so I kept it.  I have lots of letters from my father, who is a very thoughtful writer.  Letters from important times in my life, graduating from high school, college, getting married, etc.  I don't remember saving them because they were profound in any particular way, but instead because they are a reminder to me that I am special, I am loved, my Dad is proud of me.  Sometimes we all just need to be reminded that we matter to the people around us, you know?

I am not great about writing letters or cards to other people.  While I see the value, I am not in the practice of doing it.  I think that the art of writing (yes writing, not texting, not email, but actual handwriting) is a discipline that takes time and effort.  If I were to have New Years Resolutions for 2011, that would be one.  To give people more encouragement through the written word.  I think that this is part of why I love scrapbooking so much.  It allows me to write words to my family, my children, that they can read long after I am gone.  So . . . what about you, do you save notes people have given you over the years and do you go back and read over them later?