Start Spreading the News.....

Back in June when I started The Letter Writing Revolution, I was receiving about two letters per year in the mail (not including the onslaught of Christmas greetings in late November/early December). I remember the moment that the idea of TLWR came to me. I was with my friend, Em, and we stopped at the post office to pick up my mail. A letter had arrived from my one friend who still sent the odd letter/postcard via snail mail. I knew then that my blog would be about letter writing.

Fast forward four months and now each day when I open my mail box, there is at least one piece of fun mail.........tossed in with the bills and junk are colourful envelopes and unique postcards coming from all over the world and many from people whom I do not know. This past Thursday, I set aside an hour and a half to get caught up on my replies and after mailing seven letters, I opened my mailbox to discover two more! How wonderful and satisfying to think that the revolution is slowly growing even if it is within my world only :-)

A sampling of mail I have received since the beginning of TLWR!

I was reading on another blog  about the fact that some post offices in the world no longer sell just stamps but have become convenience stores as well as post offices. As well, some of the comments described the fact that some shops that used to sell postage stamps no longer do so as the demand has decreased significantly for them. Perhaps we should all try the 365 letters in 365 days project or maybe even 52 letters in 52 weeks if that feels more do-able. Maybe if everyone who writes letters took on a project of this magnitude, a revolution would truly happen.

I am heading for a wee vacation this week to New York City. It has been a childhood dream to travel to NYC and experience life in downtown Manhatten. My father always told me that one day he would take me there. As I approach 40 years of age, I decided that the time was now. I will travel with my dad and return on Sunday, October 31st. I will post again in the first week of November after my holiday.

This timely article was in the paper this weekend.
Not sure why my photo won't rotate.

I have been off of Facebook for almost three weeks. I checked in at the one week mark and then again about three days after that. As I have decreased my FB time, the mail I am receiving has increased. I do feel more connected to people and less overwhelmed by the goings-on of Facebook. At this point, I have decided to keep my profile as well as my two business pages. I do believe that Facebook is an excellent venue for advertising upcoming events/workshops, etc. especially with my businesses. I also like to post photos and links occasionally. I am slowly going through my 326 Friends list and deleting some of those who are really not close friends. In fact, many of them aren't even aquaintances. Finally, I have given up the 15+ times of checking in FB daily and reading other's status updates/newsfeed. I suppose this is a happy medium and one that is comfortable for me. Stepping away and freeing up that time has been liberating. Having it  available to post things that need to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time is beneficial to my work. I plan to check in once per week to change my status update, check my business pages and look at photos of my friends that may have been posted. Other than that, I have given it up.

Keep writing and sending those letters and who knows, you may be getting one from me!