CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Tied up in brown string...

I love writing letters. The good, newsy, old-fashioned kind where you actually use a pen and a piece of paper to jot down your thoughts to a friend or loved one.

Some people think it's silly and a waste of precious time and money when there is email so readily available and free, but I think it shows that you put more thought and care into it; that the person you are writing to is important enough to squeeze a few minutes out of your day for.

I have a list as long as my arm right now of people that I'm writing to, or need to write to, but I'm enjoying every minute of it. I like to make the envelopes and stationery myself out of sweet or unusual papers that I have found, and after I have written my letter I like to seal them with some pretty colored wax and a stamp with my initial on it.

I love the whole experience of letter writing. The tumbling of words in your mind as you try to perfectly describe a situation for someone who is hundreds or maybe thousands of miles away, the eager anticipation as you wait to see if you will get a reply, the quick, running trips out to the mailbox to see if anything interesting has arrived with your name on it, the scritch-scratch of pen against paper and the smell of new ink before it has dried; these are the things that for me, can never, ever be replaced with modern technology. Besides, who has ever heard of anyone stumbling across a dusty, interesting-looking, tied-up-with-brown-string, packet of printed off emails up in the attic? *smile*

2 comments:

Clare said...

Emily, I so agree with you! I appreciate a letter so much more just because of the time it takes. I love to think that a friend cared enough to dedicate that time to me, rather than just send off a quick email. Seeing the actual handwriting, seeing the signature, holding the real thing in your hand is so special.

My great-grandparents saved all of the love letters they wrote to each other when they were courting. What a treasure! A bunch of old emails in the inbox just aren't the same. They have so little personality. No unique handwriting, choice of stationary, stamps from faraway places...

Letters are just so full of the person who wrote them.

---Clare
www.romanceandtheroses.blogspot

emme said...

How special, Clare!

Some of my favorite old letters are ones that were written during World War II. You can't get anything better than that...

♥Emily