This post comes from our contributor Kristen Hedges.
I think that, more than anything, we should work towards softening our hearts.
We must find those simple, loving acts that gently tug and unfold the edges, melt the walls we’ve built, shake off the dust and create a sense of warmth in the ribs. More than money, power, and fame, these are the things that will quickly turn and shape the world around us.
To start, maybe we should write more love letters.
The old fashioned kind. The ones laid out in ink on paper, rather than typed onto a screen and then cautiously backspaced. The ones that are exhaled from the lungs and wrung from the heart like fresh water. They’re a relief to write. Hasty, scribbled words of truth, and love, and promise. A part of yourself, all permanently pressed in letters and symbols, and then folded up and sent the long way, over land, sea, and sky, to the one you love.
And then, after a few days, or maybe a week, someone else will anxiously tear at the seal, pick apart the glue, unfold paper, scan your words and breathe them in. Their heart will soften, too, just like that. Just by knowing that, for a moment, they were on your mind.
So, please: Let’s write more love letters. Let’s send CDs, postcards, glitter, pressed flowers, little folded cloths of tea, sand, waxed leaves, drawings, moments in time. Let’s send words that, until now, have been left unsaid. Let’s send confessions of the heart, whispers of lust, of desire, of friendship. Let’s even send casual things. Little, mundane scenes from our life penciled out and folded up, because however ordinary they seem, they will still open, soften, heal.
Stamp your envelope, dye your paper, write with a calligraphy pen. Turn off the television, open the window, go outside. Today, write a love letter. Tell them to please, write back. And then, when you let the envelope slowly slip into the mail slot, you will warm up a bit, ever so subtly.
You can find Kristen here, and at facebook.com/withonlylove.
such a beautiful idea
It would be great if you’d like to check out my little slice of the internet at http://favouringnatural.blogspot.co.uk/ :) xxx
I love this and completely agree! I was just having this exact conversation last week with a friend. Heart felt messages in ink and paper seem to be a dying form of expression in this modern age of texting and Facebook. I promised myself that this year, I would reach out more to my loved ones simple notes saying hello and I love you. It’s so much more personal this way! :)
<3
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Just recently got one; it made me feel amazing!
this is beautiful! I do this all the time! I want more pen pals! Ps. where is the writing about the knightship from? Very, very inspiring! As always, you guys amaze me
Love this post. One of my goals this year is to write more letters to my friends. So much more personal. I love to dip dye my stationary with coffee.
What a lovely idea and inspiration. Handwritten letters have a certain charm that no other form of writing does! Thanks for the idea <3 Tiffany | http://www.sunshinedaydreamphotography.com
Sincereju – my husband actually wrote that during his time at boot camp! He was embarrassed that I took a photo of it, haha (;
woops – forgot to fill in my name! Sincereju – my husband actually wrote that during his time at boot camp! He was embarrassed that I took a photo of it, haha (;
I really love this post. My friends and I used to write letters to each other all the time, and I still have every single one kept away in a memory box. Those are precious items to me, they mean so much more than a text message or like on social media.
http://www.lecafewasteland.blogspot.com
My boyfriend has taken several jobs where he works out in the woods, once in the back country where letter was our only form of communication available! I have a binder filled with our letters- there really is something so special about sitting down to write someone you love.
Oh how beautiful! I agree. We should write more love letters. There is something powerful about ink on paper
Im into writing letters recently I think I found a whole new meaning to letters, the colour they pick the stamps the effort is compared to none. Im even writing to close friends and family. But they seem to be a bit weirded out by my mission in sending letters its so rare.