Well. Here we are. Half way through this project. Hooray!
To celebrate, I joined an organisation that promotes the art of letter-writing - the Letter Writers Alliance! You get a badge and a membership card and the twelve-year-old inside me was super excited at being in a group again. When I was younger I joined the Royal Mail Penpals Club and that was very exciting!
You can see all their wondrous work here. They run a penpal exchange, and also a letter exchange, and I'm sure a host more projects. Including a ravelry one. That one is quite exciting to me as I love crocheting, but find it hard to find the time to just make things for myself. If I have a goal, then I can get going with a bit more determination. I'm probably going to sign up for all the projects, just to see what else I can achieve in the other half of this project!
What have I learnt so far?
Letter-writing is good for the soul, but can induce a certain amount of navel-gazing.
Sometimes, the letter-writing is more about the writer than the reader.
Everyone loves post.
In lots of ways, the internet is fueling the hand-written, physical exchange of writing and sending parcels. This is through things like 52 Weeks of Mail, Postcrossing, Foodie Penpals, and I'm sure loads of other sites and exchanges! If you know of any you think I'd like, please let me know!
My letter this week was a letter to a friend, for their birthday! A letter is a present in itself (of course). I would say, I'm going to try and write letters to all my friends for their birthdays, but I know this to be an undertaking I shouldn't even really think about. Mostly because I know the intention won't last. A couple of years ago, I had the intention to send all my friends framed photos for all their birthdays. I think I got to the end of January with that. Then I stopped, not purposefully, just due to time pressures and all of that! It's understandable. I do wish I was the sort of person that could follow that through. But I am following this through. So that's ok.
On the subject of navel-gazing, this song has been stuck in my head:
Hypnotic, don't you think?
Showing posts with label postcrossing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label postcrossing. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Letter 24
Letter 24 is hidden at the back of this pile of post! This week I sent a letter to a hospital. That was exciting, it's been a very long time since I wrote Ward X on an envelope. My Grandpa is in the hospital at the moment, but is fine, just waiting for the next step. I wrote a cheerful note to let him know I was thinking of him even though I hadn't been able to visit.
The pile also includes an application letter for a course I want to go on across the summer in herbal medicine at Dilston Physic Garden. And then there is of course, the usual Postcrossing crop! The cards reflect the geography of where I've been recently pretty well: York for my birthday; Boston for Pa Allen; Scarborough and Filey just for fun the other week. I can see that and you can see that, but I don't explain that on the back of the cards. That for me, the cards form a group, since I tend to write a few at a time. It makes you think about all the links between people.
Another card I got today reminded me about the things people share. Letters can often become confessional as what you write pours out and feelings order themselves against biro on paper. A postcard came today that told me a secret from a person - they'd not ever been kissed romantically. I fall prey to this too (not the unkissing) where I'll write a card to a stranger and well not tell a secret, but say something that is probably not suitable postcard discussion - someone in the Netherlands doesn't want to know about the price of a cup of PG Tips (not even Yorkshire) at the hospital. With the secret, is the revelation for them, or me?
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Letter 18
I was determined last week, to get back to taking some time out and sitting down and writing to someone. I set my mind to visit the 52 Weeks of Mail page and write a letter to the first address I found. That address was a school that was collecting USA States postcards. They weren't really looking for letters. Or for things from the UK. But since the address was there, and I had a new Yorkshire card, I figured there was some sort cosmic meeting there.
A postcard, is not a letter, however. So who to write to? I know I've got a lot of family and friends, and NOW I can think of millions of people to write to, but at that time, my mind was a blank. SO I turned to my old trusty Postcrossing cards.
I don't do it, but I think if people send you a card with their address on, they are hoping for a return, so I think it's fair game to send them something. So Imran Siddique in Pakistan hopefully will soon receive my letter thanking him for the beautiful card he sent me, introducing myself and really talking quite large amounts of rubbish. This was definitely a letter for the sake of writing letters, not a letter to a person with a purpose. Does that make it a bad letter? Is any letter bad? (Apart from Bills, they are bad!)
To be honest, I don't really mind. I was having a letter writers block week, and the worst that can happen is that it will be read, and binned. I hope not, but likewise I don't think it will have been a massive illumination. I just needed to write a letter. So that perhaps means that this project is starting lose its way if I'm sending unsolicited letters to strangers ... I hope not!
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Letter 17
Every time we see a post-box I feel the need to comment to my boyfriend in a urrr-urrr voice "That's a nice postbox" or "ooh I didn't know there was one There". Post offices cause higher levels of excitement, as I will WALK RIGHT PAST ONE when I move in with him in the summer. My bus stop is about 10m shy of one but often when playing the when-will-the-bus-come game, that 10m is integral to the win/lose catchthebus/dropthebus continuum.
I was going to say that Letter 17 week was a fail week, but then I sat and thought about it. I sent mail. I sent Postcrossing. I SENT BIRTHDAY CARDS. I didn't sit and right a full letter, but I feel that posting and sending things has become quite day-to-day for me. And that is a really good thing. Last week was also especially busy (what with having food poisoning, then my birthday and all) so I feel, to be honest, pretty smug that despite all that I did quite a lot of posting.
It's good when resolutions that you adopt become part of everyday life. That also showed in my birthday presents, where I got some ace paper and SOME STAMPS! Excellent presents indeed.
If you believe in things happening for a reason, you may see some links in this. Last week I didn't right a well long missive. Last week I found a novel that I'd been reading about communications sent in a script in China that only women could read, that had been lost for months. The book is called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and one thing I like is how it talks about the elegance of the written word, and how writing to each other cements closeness in a different way to other ways of expressing yourself. (That old ruby I hear you cry!)
I lost and I found, what should we think about that? Other than I'm superbusy and careless with possessions I mean ...
I was going to say that Letter 17 week was a fail week, but then I sat and thought about it. I sent mail. I sent Postcrossing. I SENT BIRTHDAY CARDS. I didn't sit and right a full letter, but I feel that posting and sending things has become quite day-to-day for me. And that is a really good thing. Last week was also especially busy (what with having food poisoning, then my birthday and all) so I feel, to be honest, pretty smug that despite all that I did quite a lot of posting.
It's good when resolutions that you adopt become part of everyday life. That also showed in my birthday presents, where I got some ace paper and SOME STAMPS! Excellent presents indeed.
If you believe in things happening for a reason, you may see some links in this. Last week I didn't right a well long missive. Last week I found a novel that I'd been reading about communications sent in a script in China that only women could read, that had been lost for months. The book is called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and one thing I like is how it talks about the elegance of the written word, and how writing to each other cements closeness in a different way to other ways of expressing yourself. (That old ruby I hear you cry!)
I lost and I found, what should we think about that? Other than I'm superbusy and careless with possessions I mean ...
Monday, 2 January 2012
Letter 12
Post-Christmas, driving, working, Dazmas, meant that again the letter writing time slipped through my fingers. Sunday arrived and I didn't even have a thought of anyone to write to. However, one of my Postcrossing cards had a return address on, so I though "ah-ha FATE" and spent a lovely hour writing to a person called Christina from Dresden, Germany.
I enjoyed the return of writing to a stranger. I explained about the 52 Weeks project and talked about Christmas and New Year. I find that by writing about things that have happened to me, I can definitely remember them better. I wish I was, but know I am not, a human google. Nothing, however, would make me forget the bed and breakfast we stayed in on New Year's Eve - Myrtle Grove - the lady who ran it was interesting, but her dog did wee in front of us at breakfast, but she gave us a blackcurrant bush as an apology. Who can say fairer than that? I sent Christina the card, just in case she'd like to stay in Hebden Bridge one day. I also taught her the phrase "mad as a box of frogs".
This coming week, my letters are mostly going to be thank you letters - I got amazing Christmas presents. I'm going to try and make time to write a special letter too.
Lately, as a background to all the letter-writing, I've been reading two very different collections of letters. The first I found at my Mum's house on Christmas Day is called Letters from Two World Wars (you can buy it here) and aims to record all the different attitudes to war. I studied war poetry at A-Level and so many of these letters are just as affecting. I hope they are used to teach literature and history in schools now!
One that is hearbreakingly beautiful* goes:
"... when we marched done it [the thunderstorm] cleared away for a warm still summer night; still that, except for the sniper's rifles, and the rattle of machine guns ...a sweet smell of wet earth and wet grass after the rain, and since I could not sleep I wandered out among the ghostly cherry trees all in white and watched the ghostly star-shells falling north and south ... a nightingale began to sing ... it was so strange to stand there and listen, for the song seemed to come even more clearly and sweetly in the quiet intervals between the bursts of firing ... you felt that the nightingale's song were the only real thing which would remain when all the rest was long past and forgotten. It is such an old song too ... I stood there and thought of all the men and women who had listened to that song, just as ... after Tom was killed I found myself thinking perpetually of all the men who had been killed in battle - Hector and Achilles and all the heroes long ago, who were once so strong and active and are now so quiet. Gradually the night wore on, until the day began to break, and I could see clearly the daisies and buttercups in the long grass about my feet. Then I gathered my platoon together, and marched back past the silent farms to our billets. There was a beautiful sunrise and I went to sleep content ..."
I'll wrote about some more at a later date. Others are not as haunting, but no less affecting. The other collection I am reading is The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (you can buy it here), but I'll leave discussion of that for another post ...
Happy New Year!
*p.28, written 5th May 1915 by Second Lieutenant A. D. Gillespie
I enjoyed the return of writing to a stranger. I explained about the 52 Weeks project and talked about Christmas and New Year. I find that by writing about things that have happened to me, I can definitely remember them better. I wish I was, but know I am not, a human google. Nothing, however, would make me forget the bed and breakfast we stayed in on New Year's Eve - Myrtle Grove - the lady who ran it was interesting, but her dog did wee in front of us at breakfast, but she gave us a blackcurrant bush as an apology. Who can say fairer than that? I sent Christina the card, just in case she'd like to stay in Hebden Bridge one day. I also taught her the phrase "mad as a box of frogs".
This coming week, my letters are mostly going to be thank you letters - I got amazing Christmas presents. I'm going to try and make time to write a special letter too.
Lately, as a background to all the letter-writing, I've been reading two very different collections of letters. The first I found at my Mum's house on Christmas Day is called Letters from Two World Wars (you can buy it here) and aims to record all the different attitudes to war. I studied war poetry at A-Level and so many of these letters are just as affecting. I hope they are used to teach literature and history in schools now!
One that is hearbreakingly beautiful* goes:
"... when we marched done it [the thunderstorm] cleared away for a warm still summer night; still that, except for the sniper's rifles, and the rattle of machine guns ...a sweet smell of wet earth and wet grass after the rain, and since I could not sleep I wandered out among the ghostly cherry trees all in white and watched the ghostly star-shells falling north and south ... a nightingale began to sing ... it was so strange to stand there and listen, for the song seemed to come even more clearly and sweetly in the quiet intervals between the bursts of firing ... you felt that the nightingale's song were the only real thing which would remain when all the rest was long past and forgotten. It is such an old song too ... I stood there and thought of all the men and women who had listened to that song, just as ... after Tom was killed I found myself thinking perpetually of all the men who had been killed in battle - Hector and Achilles and all the heroes long ago, who were once so strong and active and are now so quiet. Gradually the night wore on, until the day began to break, and I could see clearly the daisies and buttercups in the long grass about my feet. Then I gathered my platoon together, and marched back past the silent farms to our billets. There was a beautiful sunrise and I went to sleep content ..."
I'll wrote about some more at a later date. Others are not as haunting, but no less affecting. The other collection I am reading is The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (you can buy it here), but I'll leave discussion of that for another post ...
Happy New Year!
*p.28, written 5th May 1915 by Second Lieutenant A. D. Gillespie
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Letter 9
One of the things that has struck me the most since getting involved with Postcrossing and 52 Weeks of Mail is the huge online community that supports letters, post, writing, mail and everything related. One project that has crossed my path is in a site called The World Needs More Love Letters. The site as a whole aims to encourage people to leave notes around offering words of encouragement to people in their daily lives - not a romantic love letter, but one born out of an anonymous platonic love! This Christmas they are running a project called The Twelve Days of Love Letter Writing - you can read about it here. Monday 5th December was the first day of the project and the task was to write a letter of support to a person called Nickie who'd been through a difficult time! This is the loving letter decor I chose for Day 1:
I sent a Jasmine Pearls Teapig so she could have a lovely cup of tea and hopefully the hearts will act like a visual embrace for her! I think it's beautiful that there are online communities that come together in this way to support others ... aww
More letters were to two girls whose parents are divorcing. It's very difficult to know what to say when you've never been in that situation yourself, but it reinforced to me the importance of NOT saying "I've been there it gets better", but saying "things are rubbish and that's ok, they will improve". I also won a competition from a company called Botanical Paperworks
They sell cards that are made of paper that is filled with seeds, that you then plant and grow! I'm excited to plant the card they sent to me, and I turned the front of it into a Postcrossing card too!
I'm also really enjoying using my nice fountain pen! I always use biros and pencils at work and it's so easy to forget the joy of using a lovely pen to write some lovely words. I also love this pen as it's the one my lovely mother bought me to use at university. It's very special to me. This week is a week of letters and next week will be too, however I have missed writing to someone I know to tell them my news and how much I value them. Hopefully next week, I'll continue with the 12 Days of Love Letters and also be able to find time to write a lovely letter too!
More letters were to two girls whose parents are divorcing. It's very difficult to know what to say when you've never been in that situation yourself, but it reinforced to me the importance of NOT saying "I've been there it gets better", but saying "things are rubbish and that's ok, they will improve". I also won a competition from a company called Botanical Paperworks
I'm also really enjoying using my nice fountain pen! I always use biros and pencils at work and it's so easy to forget the joy of using a lovely pen to write some lovely words. I also love this pen as it's the one my lovely mother bought me to use at university. It's very special to me. This week is a week of letters and next week will be too, however I have missed writing to someone I know to tell them my news and how much I value them. Hopefully next week, I'll continue with the 12 Days of Love Letters and also be able to find time to write a lovely letter too!
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Letter 3
This week I had a request from a lady from Postcrossing to be written to for this project. At first I was unsure because I couldn't decide if this project would be to just write to people I know, re-establishing communications, or whether it could be a penfriend project as well. In the end I thought in for a penny, in for a pound ... Post brings me a lot of pleasure ...
This week's letter has been posted to Canada now. It did feel quite strange to be writing to someone I don't know - what do you talk about? What do you mention? What do you leave out? This week was super busy as it was half-term and there were "Educational Trips" planned (btw I would definitely recommend the National Coal Mining Museum) so the letter turned into more of a diary of the start of the week. I find letter-writing can help you crystallise what you're thinking, and because it is a reflective activity, sometimes the brain has whirred and what you write can even surprise you.
It did also give me a chance to use some amazing TAPIR stationary I got in Japan 18 months ago. Tapirs are my favorite animal, and no one does amazing cute stationary like Japanese shops do ...
This week's letter has been posted to Canada now. It did feel quite strange to be writing to someone I don't know - what do you talk about? What do you mention? What do you leave out? This week was super busy as it was half-term and there were "Educational Trips" planned (btw I would definitely recommend the National Coal Mining Museum) so the letter turned into more of a diary of the start of the week. I find letter-writing can help you crystallise what you're thinking, and because it is a reflective activity, sometimes the brain has whirred and what you write can even surprise you.
It did also give me a chance to use some amazing TAPIR stationary I got in Japan 18 months ago. Tapirs are my favorite animal, and no one does amazing cute stationary like Japanese shops do ...
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Wind's in the East ...
I'm about to start a new project and I think it'll be interesting to share.
52 Weeks of Mail is an idea set up by Etsy to encourage people to write more letters:
http://www.facebook.com/52weeksofmail?sk=info
Basically you make a pledge to yourself to sit and write one letter a week to anyone for a whole year. You choose who you write to and what you write about. No one has to reply to you. There's no online tracking system. There's no spell checker. It's about your relationships with people and with the written word.
I love sending postcards (www.postcrossing.com) and try to write, but most letters I write are thank you notes after birthdays and Christmas. This will encourage me to sit and take time to keep people in the loop! I have so many amazing friends and a wonderful family all around the world and I want this to help me keep in touch with them. (Liking a status does not a friendship make.)
Personally, I always find Autumn is the season that inspires the most changes in me. Last Autumn I took up running and tried (and failed) at a raw food diet. This autumn I'm having colonic irrigation (even I can't mess up being flushed) and doing this. Another reason is to encourage me to take time out of my hectic life to sit and be still. By taking time to write you a letter, I'll also be taking time for myself ...
52 Weeks of Mail is an idea set up by Etsy to encourage people to write more letters:
http://www.facebook.com/52weeksofmail?sk=info
Basically you make a pledge to yourself to sit and write one letter a week to anyone for a whole year. You choose who you write to and what you write about. No one has to reply to you. There's no online tracking system. There's no spell checker. It's about your relationships with people and with the written word.
I love sending postcards (www.postcrossing.com) and try to write, but most letters I write are thank you notes after birthdays and Christmas. This will encourage me to sit and take time to keep people in the loop! I have so many amazing friends and a wonderful family all around the world and I want this to help me keep in touch with them. (Liking a status does not a friendship make.)
Personally, I always find Autumn is the season that inspires the most changes in me. Last Autumn I took up running and tried (and failed) at a raw food diet. This autumn I'm having colonic irrigation (even I can't mess up being flushed) and doing this. Another reason is to encourage me to take time out of my hectic life to sit and be still. By taking time to write you a letter, I'll also be taking time for myself ...
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