Letter Writing

Dear Friend,

I've missed writing letters to people.

I started quite young, if I recall, by pretending to have a pen-pal.

After that I wrote to a few girls at summer camp, a shut-in I didn’t know from church, my great-granddad, and a soldier stationed in a war zone [the Middle East].

All of the correspondences were meaningful to me in some way. A connection, if you will. Very few of my recipients replied but that was okay with me. I enjoyed writing and it always excited me to imagine how they might react to see a letter in the mail from me. It gave me a sense of belonging, an outlet where I could share my inner soul without fear of being crushed. Many times if a reply did come, I had forgotten what I wrote.

There is a sense of distorted time when writing a letter. The feelings are now, in the moment, and yet will not reach the recipient's eyes for days or weeks. My "now" is the past to them. My thoughts of their response are my future and their present. It's all very odd when you think of it, although I suppose you haven't thought of it quite like that before.

There's also something lovely and calming about writing in cursive as well. It slows down my thoughts a bit and allows me to process as I write. Often it's a rambling letter of little consequence that makes its way from my mind to my fingers and sometimes I hardly know what I'm writing until it comes out.

Sadly, my hand cramps a bit if I'm not careful. Death grip on the pen. I've done it since I was a kid and don't know how to retrain myself.

Best wishes,
Heather

[Originally written June 10, 2021]