I am 47 and wrote letters regularly to friends until about the year 2003/4 which is when texting really seemed to take off, though I continued sporadically until about 2010/11 when social media became a thing and I tended to keep in touch that way. I did also email friends especially those I’d ‘met’ online. But by about 2014/15 I had only two friends to whom I wrote on a regular basis.
Anyway I stopped using Facebook (except to look for local events) earlier this year and told people if they wanted to stay in touch with me we could write. At first, five friends got in touch to give me their ‘snail mail’ addresses, but out of them only one became a regular correspondant; eventually the other foir stopped replying. But that’s now an extra friend to whom I write regularly, three all together, which isn’t bad.
I don’t think I could do 52 letters (lack of time more than anything — I have very little free time and I’ve already promised myself that I’ll concentrate on reading) but I am going to commit to two a month, so 24 all together.
Ruth, three regular snail-mail correspondents is three more than most people I know (including myself) have maintained. I'm delighted to have your companionship in this endeavor and I so admire your steadfastness in letter writing. What a beautiful legacy of connections you have been creating!
My oldest child writes letters as part of her homeschooling, but I am not in the habit myself—perhaps this is the perfect invitation to jump in the fun myself next year!
Letter writing is such a marvelous element to include in homeschooling (or any schooling, really). If you feel inspired, I would love for you to join in!
Thank you, Ruth! I rarely engage on your posts but I often read, and am grateful for the depth and breadth of what you offer. I am always deeply thankful for those men and women who are a decade or more ahead of where I am in life, and who are sharing the wisdom they have gleaned for those of us coming along a few steps behind. You have my appreciation for being among them.
This warms my old soul. As someone that is stepping further outside of social media I do feel the gaps of connection. I’m feeling into the space I have for this journey in my life right now. Thanks for the full resource to accompany the project.
Thanks for sharing this, Danielle. It feels so strange that in so brief a time social media has flooded the cracks of life and sealed out those tried-and-true forms of human connection at a distance. I hope you find a rhythm that works for you amidst this season; it would be wonderful to undertake this alongside you!
I am so grateful for you, Renita. You light more than a few candles, in more than a few ways. Thank you. (And I'm excited to hear how this goes for you; I'm sure we'll be comparing notes at some point through 2025!)
Love this project so much! I wrote a letter a day in 2019 and ended up writing over 400 letters that year. I don’t write nearly that many now…maybe around 100 or so this year, but I love this initiative! Bravo!
Shannon, you're a veritable tornado in the ink department! I love what you pointed out in your post: that so often people save their words of love to deliver over a casket. Especially in an era where isolation and despair seems to be an unwelcome guest in almost every life, it seems all the more meaningful to air out every word that might be said at a funeral ahead of time.
If you don't already know it, I think you would enjoy this beautiful poem from Conrad Aiken:
One star fell and another as we walked.
Lifting his hand towards the west, he said—
—How prodigal that sky is of its stars!
They fall and fall, and still the sky is sky.
Two more have gone, and heaven is heaven still.
Then let us not be precious of our thought,
Nor of our words, nor hoard them up as though
We thought our minds a heaven which might change
And lose its virtue, when the word had fallen.
Let us be prodigal, as heaven is:
Lose what we lose, and give what we may give,—
Ourselves are still the same. Lost you a planet—?
Is Saturn gone? then let him take his rings
Into the Limbo of forgotten things.
O little foplings of the pride of mind
Who wrap the phrase in lavender and keep it
In order to display it: and you, who save our loves
Jan! Of course you are doing this! I too keep a snail mail writing practice. It is more noteworthy than what I share onscreen, and more fulfilling/ heartwarming than I can express. A few of the folks I correspond with I've met here thru Substack, and elsewhere online. For these correspondences, I am eternally grateful for social media (which I generally tend to rebel against). If you'd like to receive a lil something from me, please feel free to send along your address, thru whatever channel you deem appropriate and/or secretive enough. Wishing you warmth, peace, and heaping helpings of joy as winter settles in. ❄🕯🍯 your friend in poetry, Kat
Thank you for this lovely invitation to engage, Kat! I will certainly be sending you a message. Letters truly are an under-sung creative practice; they feel to me like an intersection of art forms almost as much as they feel like relational connective tissue. The way you describe putting more into lettercraft than what you share on-screen reminds me of just how beautiful digital interconnection can be when the pathways laid through it lead us back into the breathing world. (Your warm wishes are well-received; the second snowfall of the year is tucking us into our farmhouse and bringing a much-needed sense of slowness. Stay cozy! I'm sure Winter has visited you in the north with a much more enthusiastic embrace than we have received.)
This is such a beautiful idea. I have been writing mini letters to my baby daughter in a notebook, here and there to document milestones and funny moments. I plan to gift it to her when she herself gets pregnant or otherwise comes of age. I had intended to write atleast once a week in the notebook and don't quite meet that goal but when something especially touching happens I get it down on paper for her to reflect on through my eyes in the future.
I love the sentiment that relationship needs to be textured-- touched and felt! Beautifully written as always.
I'm not sure if I'll commit to the 52 letters but I plan to write at least a couple to some friends who have recently moved overseas, in addition to continuing these mini reflections for my daughter.
Penelope, what an incredible gift that notebook is to both yourself and to your daughter, both in the present-day practice of attention to her and for her grown-woman self! Thank you for sharing. One of the things which has really been impressed deeply on my heart since becoming a mother has been the way in which we as parents have the opportunity to cultivate real-time relationship with the adults our children will become. Letters like these are such a beautiful practice in that vein.
I am 47 and wrote letters regularly to friends until about the year 2003/4 which is when texting really seemed to take off, though I continued sporadically until about 2010/11 when social media became a thing and I tended to keep in touch that way. I did also email friends especially those I’d ‘met’ online. But by about 2014/15 I had only two friends to whom I wrote on a regular basis.
Anyway I stopped using Facebook (except to look for local events) earlier this year and told people if they wanted to stay in touch with me we could write. At first, five friends got in touch to give me their ‘snail mail’ addresses, but out of them only one became a regular correspondant; eventually the other foir stopped replying. But that’s now an extra friend to whom I write regularly, three all together, which isn’t bad.
I don’t think I could do 52 letters (lack of time more than anything — I have very little free time and I’ve already promised myself that I’ll concentrate on reading) but I am going to commit to two a month, so 24 all together.
Ruth, three regular snail-mail correspondents is three more than most people I know (including myself) have maintained. I'm delighted to have your companionship in this endeavor and I so admire your steadfastness in letter writing. What a beautiful legacy of connections you have been creating!
Beautiful. Can't wait to follow this and participate! Thank you for all the resources you included.
I'm so glad you're joining the fun, Leah!
My oldest child writes letters as part of her homeschooling, but I am not in the habit myself—perhaps this is the perfect invitation to jump in the fun myself next year!
Letter writing is such a marvelous element to include in homeschooling (or any schooling, really). If you feel inspired, I would love for you to join in!
Wonderful project Jan! I'll share this with readers in our next post and am so happy that Peco's and my writings have helped inspire you :)
Thank you, Ruth! I rarely engage on your posts but I often read, and am grateful for the depth and breadth of what you offer. I am always deeply thankful for those men and women who are a decade or more ahead of where I am in life, and who are sharing the wisdom they have gleaned for those of us coming along a few steps behind. You have my appreciation for being among them.
I’m inspired! I will join you! ❤️
Oh, Kelly, I love that you're joining in! Cheers to a year of letter-writing in wonderful company.
This warms my old soul. As someone that is stepping further outside of social media I do feel the gaps of connection. I’m feeling into the space I have for this journey in my life right now. Thanks for the full resource to accompany the project.
Thanks for sharing this, Danielle. It feels so strange that in so brief a time social media has flooded the cracks of life and sealed out those tried-and-true forms of human connection at a distance. I hope you find a rhythm that works for you amidst this season; it would be wonderful to undertake this alongside you!
I'd like to try this! I'll join the "2 per month" group. :) YES to lighting candles.
I am so grateful for you, Renita. You light more than a few candles, in more than a few ways. Thank you. (And I'm excited to hear how this goes for you; I'm sure we'll be comparing notes at some point through 2025!)
Love this project so much! I wrote a letter a day in 2019 and ended up writing over 400 letters that year. I don’t write nearly that many now…maybe around 100 or so this year, but I love this initiative! Bravo!
(You can read about my project here if you’re interested: https://shannonhood.substack.com/p/why-i-wrote-hundreds-of-handwritten)
Shannon, you're a veritable tornado in the ink department! I love what you pointed out in your post: that so often people save their words of love to deliver over a casket. Especially in an era where isolation and despair seems to be an unwelcome guest in almost every life, it seems all the more meaningful to air out every word that might be said at a funeral ahead of time.
If you don't already know it, I think you would enjoy this beautiful poem from Conrad Aiken:
One star fell and another as we walked.
Lifting his hand towards the west, he said—
—How prodigal that sky is of its stars!
They fall and fall, and still the sky is sky.
Two more have gone, and heaven is heaven still.
Then let us not be precious of our thought,
Nor of our words, nor hoard them up as though
We thought our minds a heaven which might change
And lose its virtue, when the word had fallen.
Let us be prodigal, as heaven is:
Lose what we lose, and give what we may give,—
Ourselves are still the same. Lost you a planet—?
Is Saturn gone? then let him take his rings
Into the Limbo of forgotten things.
O little foplings of the pride of mind
Who wrap the phrase in lavender and keep it
In order to display it: and you, who save our loves
As if we had not worlds of love enough—!
Let us be reckless of our words and worlds,
And spend them freely as the tree his leaves;
And give them where the giving is most blest.
What should we save them for,—a night of frost?…
All lost for nothing, and ourselves a ghost.
Ah what a beautiful poem! Thank you for sharing it!
Jan! Of course you are doing this! I too keep a snail mail writing practice. It is more noteworthy than what I share onscreen, and more fulfilling/ heartwarming than I can express. A few of the folks I correspond with I've met here thru Substack, and elsewhere online. For these correspondences, I am eternally grateful for social media (which I generally tend to rebel against). If you'd like to receive a lil something from me, please feel free to send along your address, thru whatever channel you deem appropriate and/or secretive enough. Wishing you warmth, peace, and heaping helpings of joy as winter settles in. ❄🕯🍯 your friend in poetry, Kat
Thank you for this lovely invitation to engage, Kat! I will certainly be sending you a message. Letters truly are an under-sung creative practice; they feel to me like an intersection of art forms almost as much as they feel like relational connective tissue. The way you describe putting more into lettercraft than what you share on-screen reminds me of just how beautiful digital interconnection can be when the pathways laid through it lead us back into the breathing world. (Your warm wishes are well-received; the second snowfall of the year is tucking us into our farmhouse and bringing a much-needed sense of slowness. Stay cozy! I'm sure Winter has visited you in the north with a much more enthusiastic embrace than we have received.)
I'm in! I already have a small list of people in mind to write to.
Yes! I'm so glad you're adding this into your richly filled life, Catherine!
This is such a beautiful idea. I have been writing mini letters to my baby daughter in a notebook, here and there to document milestones and funny moments. I plan to gift it to her when she herself gets pregnant or otherwise comes of age. I had intended to write atleast once a week in the notebook and don't quite meet that goal but when something especially touching happens I get it down on paper for her to reflect on through my eyes in the future.
I love the sentiment that relationship needs to be textured-- touched and felt! Beautifully written as always.
I'm not sure if I'll commit to the 52 letters but I plan to write at least a couple to some friends who have recently moved overseas, in addition to continuing these mini reflections for my daughter.
Penelope, what an incredible gift that notebook is to both yourself and to your daughter, both in the present-day practice of attention to her and for her grown-woman self! Thank you for sharing. One of the things which has really been impressed deeply on my heart since becoming a mother has been the way in which we as parents have the opportunity to cultivate real-time relationship with the adults our children will become. Letters like these are such a beautiful practice in that vein.