My Dear Reader,

For over a year now, I’ve been pondering the loss of written letters in our society. When I was a little girl, my mother wrote to her sisters and to her mother frequently. I cannot say if it was weekly, but it was often. They wrote back. What treasures these letters were. They told of what was going on in the lives of loved ones across the miles. They could be savored over a cup of tea or coffee and re-read again at night before turning off the light. I have a collection of these letters that my mother saved and I am eagerly looking forward to reading when my own children are a little older. Her mother and sister saved her letters and in them I will find a chronicle of my childhood. That is a treasure!

Sadly, this treasure is no longer being kept by most of us. We send quick emails here and there with an occasional long newsy email to bless our loved one. I confess, I rarely think to print these off and save them in a file, let alone carry them to bed with me to savor at the end of my day. I also confess that I let busyness take over and I neglect to send the news of the day. Besides, I’ve probably texted some of it and phoned some of the rest. We’re so connected these days and yet we’re still so disconnected. Emails, texts and many phone calls fail to hit deep levels of communication.

This past week I received a letter from a former neighbor. In the letter, she told me some of the early history of our neighborhood. As I was reading out loud from the letter, one of my sons came in the room. When I finished he asked, “Is she on Facebook?” We laughed, but the truth is sad, in his experience if you have news from another, it must have come from Facebook. He doesn’t see me receive mail in my mailbox with the latest news. Frankly, I rarely receive any mail that isn’t bills or junk.

I’d like to see this change. I’ve thought of different “plans” to get letter writing going again, but I’ve not been faithful to execute them. Of course, there is no guarantee that if I choose to write a letter to someone that they will be inclined to return the favor. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to ask that either. I’d like to hope that if I wrote someone they would at least respond, even if they chose to utilize one of the modern methods, such as email.

Last week I received the treat of a long newsy email. Today I responded with pen and paper. It was relaxing to sit somewhere besides my computer and write while sipping on a cup of tea. I shared things from my journal that I had learned in God’s Word, which, honestly, I probably would not have done, if I had sat down to let my fingers fly across the keyboard. I hope that this was the first of many such letters. Only time will tell.

What are your thoughts about writing letters and mailing them to dear ones?

Yours,

Mary Ellen