Snail Mail

I’ve been spending a bit of time catching up on snail mail these days. It’s been a relief and a pause, digging about in my stationery stash, affixing stamps. I mostly do it during homeschooling time. Much of Caleb’s homeschooling time I am doing the blog or on my screen in some way, and it’s nice to also do some analogue things while he is scratching away on paper and pencil. His mama in fact is not bionic.

In addition to much overdue responses to pen pals, I also have the pleasure of writing short thank you notes, or shorter letters in response to customers who have written in with encouragement and thoughtfulness and much needed good humour in this wild time. It’s been a good reminder that letters don’t have to be so long or windy, it can just be a note to say thank you for thinking of us, or I am reading this book and I thought of you, or I tried that recipe you sent me and it was a disaster.

My new organizational system over the last couple of months has involved shoving everything into a few different drawers, and now it’s startling and delightful to start rummaging around in it and discovering letters to respond to. And it’s such a lovely feeling to have a healthy stack of letters in your hand, to head out to the mailbox, one I experience relatively rarely, although I’m working on that.

Some of you have been writing in and letting us know how much you’ve enjoyed writing by hand these days. When you can’t see grandparents or friends in person, it can be a fun and meaningful way to reconnect. Something to remember in this time.

I have also really been enjoying getting through some of my stationery stash. I make all sorts of very important promises to myself to not acquire (hoard) new stationery but then blue paper comes in and all of a sudden my life is incomplete. It’s very satisfying to use things up, get down to the last few sheets of a pad, send things out.