52/52/22

I wrote 52 handwritten letters to 52 different people in 2022.

It was a challenge I set for myself in December 2021 and one I am pleased to report was successfully met by the end of the year.  Recipients were family and friends with whom, for the most part, I hadn’t had much, or any, contact with for some time.  In many instances it had been years and even decades since we had spoken or connected in any way.  Imagine their surprise when a letter arrived.  A letter composed with no other purpose than to let them know I was thinking of them and to that end had put pen to paper, dusted off my penmanship and made a valiant attempt to form a legible script for them to decipher.  I only had a few rules.  One – I had to write one letter per week.  Two – each letter would be scribed in my amalgamated cursive/print style. Three – I would choose the recipient at the time of writing – no pre-made list.  Whoever popped into my head, as I sat staring at the blank page, would be the lucky receiver.  Four – I had a one page – double sided – limit to my ramblings. Five – I would not keep a copy for myself.  This action was old school to the max and once composed with the envelope addressed and stamped the dispatch would be gone from me.   One might ask if there was a purpose to this pursuit.  That’s a good question and I’d have to say yes there was but it was a simple reason, nothing with any great meaning or a direct reflection of our Covid isolation or our reliance on technology for instant messaging.  I just wanted to make time and take time to create a link with those who had drifted from my sight.  I believe a letter carries within it a passion and precision of mind that isn’t possible in text messages or emails.  A letter allows one to hold a piece of the sender in their hands and nearer to their heart.  I wanted my presence to be felt as I described sunny afternoons on my back deck or lamented the turn of the season or reminisced of times gone by.  I wanted to be in attendance when the envelope was opened and my words tumbled out.

Was I?  I believe so and as replies and acknowledgements flowed back to me via letters, emails, text messages, phone calls and Facebook posts I reveled in the knowledge that I had ‘made’ days and brought smiles to faces and tears to eyes. I rekindled relationships and fanned the flames of friendship and all it took was time and a stamp.