My Month of Letters

I know we're already halfway through March, but I've been meaning to share with you the results of my participation in A Month of Letters in February. LetterMo was started by author Mary Robinette Kowal ("Shades of Milk and Honey") in 2010. The goal is to send at least one piece of mail every day the post office is open in Feburary -- that comes out to 23. There are also special achievement badges that participants can strive for, such as international mail, use a new mailbox, letter to a soldier, Valentine, send a package, and Austen-style (with a wax seal and all that jazz).

I love sending and receiving snail mail, and I try to send cards and letters once in a while rather than e-mails and Facebook messages, so as soon as I heard about the project I jumped right in. I started a week late but juuuust managed to squeak by with 23 total items sent.

I expected to send letters to my friends and family, who are scattered far and wide, the product of me being a military spouse. But I didn't expect to write to several strangers and even develop a few pen-pal correspondences that I hope will be long-lasting. The LetterMo.com website proved a wonderful place to meet others who share my love of letters.

 

Some of my favorite stamps received during LetterMo.

 

Between writing to old friends and new pals from LetterMo and participating in a postcard swap on the knitting site Ravelry, I sent and received mail from 15 states and 5 other countries: Australia, Germany, Holland, Hungary and Spain.

I had such a grand time running to the mailbox every day during February to see what bounty lay within -- and I was rarely disappointed. It was so wonderful to find little gems of postcards, hand-written notes, and many-paged letters tucked between the catalogs, bills and junk, junk, junk.

I was also quite impressed by the other LetterMo participants' lovely mail -- they often had beautiful stationery (Nancy Drew was my favorite), utilized rubber stamps, cool pens and their creative prowess. It inspired me to dress up my envelopes and letters more, and I broke out the rubber stamps I hadn't used in years as well as splurged on some nice, colorful Pilot Precise pens that are a dream to write with compared to a regular ballpoint.

I'm sure everyone I sent a letter or card to during February, particularly the non-LetterMo participants, was thrilled to find an unexpected surprise in their mailbox, and I hope to keep up this trend throughout the year. E-mail and texting are fantastic inventions, but they don't quite compare to the joy of holding a lovingly hand-written and decorated letter in your hands.