Who to write a letter to?

One of my 20 Little Things is to write hand-written letters once a month. I'm not doing so well in this area.

Part of the problem is that I feel honestly like it is weird to write someone you speak with or Facebook with or text with a hand-written letter. It feels very formal. What is there to say if you see my status updates on Facebook? It almost feels like I need some grand reason for writing on paper. Our world is so willy-nilly with communication now, everything is so fast and casual that I am quite stumped at how to find the right tone for a real letter. And the right recipient.

I'd thought about writing to a company or store that I love. But when the time comes, I can't think of one that I want to write to! Is something wrong with me? Can you imagine yourself writing a letter to some store you really loved, just to say you loved it? Why does doing so make me feel like some creep?

The fallback is always Grandma. Grandma writes US letters, and we don't email with her, so it's either that or the phone. She probably wouldn't mind a hand-written letter every month. But I'd like to shake it up.

Who should I write a letter to? Who was the last person you wrote a real letter to? Give me some ideas, pretty pretty please!

Wearing pink

Um, guess what?

I'm still scrambling to catch up. I did write my hand-written letter last night. It's going to my friend who is about to have a baby. It's fill with all sorts of unsolicited advice.

Robert wanted to deliver it herself, but I worry she won't understand the freeway interchanges.

Last night, in perfect timing, I picked up my order of nifty gifties from my friend Mary, who is a Thirty-One consultant.

In my order was a sheet of address labels. They look so perfect on my letter, which by the way, is written on an owl card. Naturally.


Here are the cards... They're designed by Jilly Phillips for British stationary company Paperchase.

Cute, eh?

And look how the address labels just add that finishing touch. Like I said, perfect timing!

You know what else is perfect timing?

I still need to do a Random Act of Kindness. And today happens to be Wear Pink for Cora day. 

Cora was a sweet little baby who died when she was only five days old of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. One moment, she was nursing happily in her mother's arms. The next, she was gone. Just like that.

Can you imagine?

Five days old. Here you are with your baby, who seems fine. You're holding her. She's a little lethargic, but she's a newborn. You're not expecting cartwheels. The next thing you know, you look down. She's got blood trickling out of her mouth. Can you imagine the shock and horror you'd feel?

I've been following her mother Kristine's story through Twitter, Facebook and her blog, Cora's story, since shortly after this tragic death happened in early December.

Today would have been Cora's four-month birthday. So Kristine, who is doing a knockout job of keeping her daughter's legacy alive and advancing the cause of CHD awareness, is asking people to wear pink today, Cora's favorite color. And to do something kind in her memory.

I'm game.

What's going on?

I wrote this nice, lengthy letter on Sunday, just sneaking in my one-handwritten-letter-per-month. It's to Grandma, who lives down in Florida.

I didn't mail it Monday, because I was having some pictures printed to send along with it.

I picked up the pictures on Tuesday. But I didn't put the letter in the mail that evening.

Or on Wednesday.

And on Thursday, I get a call at work from my husband, who had heard from his parents that Grandma had a stroke.

I don't know much about how she's doing besides that she can walk with a limp, she's talking and she's going home this weekend. So I think you could classify the stroke as "mild." But I feel so terrible anyway. She's all alone down there, at least in terms of family. I hope she's OK.

I wish I'd sent my letter earlier. Now I think I might not send it at all... It's weird to send it now knowing what's going on with her, right? I think so.

No. 20 -- Write a hand-written letter each month and mail it.

Whoooo will get the first hand-written letter?

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Why it's on the list: Because there is something about a hand-written letter. The fact that it is pretty-much extinct? Maybe that's it. It's like an art form. I'm like a.... "thinker" if I write a hand-written letter. I must have something to say, if I write a hand-written letter. I am deep and philosophical and witty. OK, I'm being a little silly. But the bottom line isn't that far off. I think it's nice. To think of someone and sit down and clear your head and put some thoughts down and then to mail it. It's formal but intimate. You can keep a letter and reread it. And it's hard! We don't know how to write letters anymore. Our communications are so instant, so shallow and so constant, that when we're forced to be a little more long-winded, thoughtful and soul-bearing, it's, for me at least, a very unfamiliar, unnatural act. I'd like to be better at it. I'd like someone to keep one of my letters, pull it out years from now and smile. They say if you want to be good at something, to practice it. So here I go.

How I'll do it: I'm going to make a list of people who I think should get a letter. I'll review it and pick someone each month. I can change the list up at any time, but I hope having the list made will make me think of little things -- randomly, in the shower, while I'm driving -- to write in my letters. Then I'll pour a cup of something warm and sit down to write. I'm going to try to make those letters more than just drivel I spew out at the last minute. In full honesty, my first letter, written Saturday and to be mailed tomorrow, wasn't far off from that. Hopefully, as we go along, it won't be so hard to figure out something to say that is worthy of a hand-written note! Especially ones written on sweet stationary like this one was...