Love Letters

There is no better surprise when you drag your tired ass home on a typical weeknight after a day of work and errands to find mail (aside from bills) waiting for you. Tonight it was so nice to come home to a card from my friend Sam who lives in Cleveland.  It was a just because note (in my opinion the best kind of note) saying that it was nice seeing me when I was in town last month and just reinforcing how important our friendship is.

I am a huge fan of snail mail and personal notes.  Email is great and convenient at work, but I hate it in my personal life.  My good friends know if they want to reach me by email to email me at my work address because I check my personal email once or twice a month these days if I'm lucky.  My really good friends know not to email me at all but communicate with me some other way.  

When I was in Cleveland and cleaning out my mom's house I was going through my things from childhood through to grad school and one of the most precious things I came across were letters and notes I had saved from college.  These included drawings and notes from little girls I babysat in high school writing me to say they missed me since I had moved, letters from my friend Tommy who graduated a couple years before me and was sharing his experiences volunteering in South America, notes from my girlfriends Elissa, Julie, and Amy where we bared our souls about our fears and dreams for the future.  

I used to be so good a writing notes and cards.  Now aside from Thank You notes I'm really bad at it.  I want to make writing letters and notes more often part of my journey towards balance this year because it is something that is important to me. Getting mail like my note today and rereading these old letters makes me feel so amazing. It is a reinforcement of being loved and valued by others.  I want my friends to experience the joy of coming home to a random note just telling them how much they mean to me.  

I'm sure I come across as a bit sappy and I probably am.  However through losing family and friends over the course of my life I've come to believe that you shouldn't wait for tomorrow to tell someone how much they mean to you because tomorrow isn't a guarantee...but today is.