old pen pals

One of my most favorite past-times since I was a kid is to send handwritten letters and cards through the mail to my friends and family.  I’m fairly certain this love of letters all started with my great-grandmother, Grandma Mae.  Every month I could count on a letter, a card, a booklet about Jesus or some kind of message written in her wobbly, cursive penmanship, sent with love.  Daily, I would wait by the mailbox, eager to see if she would respond.  Days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months to my nine year old self as I would wait eagerly, sometimes the same day I sent the card, to see if she happened to write.   There was something so grown up about writing a letter and something so exciting about anticipating a response.  From that point on, I was hooked.

As I sit to write this post, I don’t think I can count the number of pen pals I have written over the years.

There was the girl in Kansas I met through a magazine pen pal program who wrote me twice and never again.

Then there’s Louise from Michigan who I met on a a mission trip to West Virginia when I was twelve.  I ran across her letters last Christmas in an old box of mementos and looked her up on Facebook.  There she was…grown up, single and smiling in her profile.  I wonder if she even remembers me.

Anna, my good friend from elementary school, moved away when we were young adolescents.  Somehow admist high school graduations and her marriage to the man she loves, we found each other, reconnected and for years sent each other letters and cards when I was in my 20s.  I actually think I owe her a return letter.

Then there’s the German girl I randomly met through a friend one weekend in south Georgia.  In my attempt to send her a letter written in German, a language I knew nothing about, she responded back: “You write is funny.”  Tell me about it.

I think it’s the connection to people that I love and it’s the surprise that occurs when something whimsical, something interesting, or something special comes in the mail.  Over the last several weeks I’ve found an assortment of cards that I’ve sent to various people in my life.  I thought I’d share them with you.

Happy writing.