TLWR News of the Week

Friday has arrived in a flash and I want to share with all of you some of the cool things happening at The Letter Writing Revolution headquarters.

First off, I have been pumping out letters like a mad woman in the last couple of weeks and there are more to write today. Keep an eye on your mailboxes and you, too, will find a letter from me.....if you are a part of the Challenge. Secondly, I have not only been writing letters but receiving them as well which is like waking a dormant part of myself. I walk to our post office and get this joyful feeling when I spy an envelope that isn't a bill or junk mail. As TLWR grows, so does the number of letters I receive. It is a great bonus of being head of a revolution like this one.

The third highlight of the week was when I received an email from a blog follower who happened to come across my blog through various links. She requested a letter from me as a part of the challenge. She is following from Kentucky, USA. Very cool that the revolution is reaching places beyond my friends and relatives home addresses :-)

The fourth highlight of the week was when I checked my Blog Stats last night and discovered that in this week alone, this blog has been viewed from all over Canada and the U.S.A but also viewed from far away places like the Netherlands, Germany, Vietnam, Afghanistan and India. How awesome is that??? Maybe "my" soldier that I wrote to did receive my letter and is now checking out the blog.

And finally, last but not least, I arrived home yesterday to an email from Jen over at Pen and Prosper urging me to check out her blog post. She had chosen four bookmark-worthy blogs and TLWR was one of them! I am pretty thrilled about that as it is a huge compliment to have my blog admired by someone I have only met recently online AND to have this blog exposed to more people. Every little bit helps the revolution to grow. Thanks, Jen!

Oh, wait......one more highlight of the week........my mom just showed up with a little gift for me of a roll of Canadian stamps (60 of them!!) to help out with my letter writing. Thanks, mom!!

On that note, wherever you may be, have a wonderful weekend and find some time to write at least one letter to make someone's day! And as always, if you haven't become a follower, please do so and please also share this blog with your friends and family. Who knows? Maybe they will be inspired to write YOU a letter.

It's Friday and I Got Mail

If you're new to this Blog, please read the very first post to understand what The Letter Writing Revolution is all about: http://theletterwritingrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/06/one-of-these-days-im-gonna-sit-down-and.html

The weekend is upon us and finally a rainy day has arrived to break the extreme heat that has hit these parts in the last week. I believe it was 44 degrees Celsius with the humidity yesterday. Now, we are blessed with a slight breeze and rain...lots of rain.

I just walked to the post office to mail a love letter to a farmer. Lo and behold, I received three letters today! One of the letters was in a large bubble envelope containing a very cool cookbook. My friend, Sandra, who lives on the westcoast had been wanting to send me this cookbook for sometime. The Letter Writing Revolution prompted her to handwrite a very long and enjoyable letter which she sent with the book. Thank you, Sandra!!! I loved your letter and you will most certainly receive one back.

I LOVED the letters I received today and what they contained. I really forgot how amazing it feels to receive handwritten mail. So much more personal than an email and well, don't even get me started on texting. While I was in the post office, I chatted with our new Post Master. I told her about The Letter Writing Revolution (TLWR for short) yesterday and so we were chatting today about the loss of this wonderful art. I commented that young people today will have no real history of their life without letters. I have hundreds of journals of my life contained in the form of letters. Letters that I have written and letters that I have received over the last 30 years. Texting and email just doesn't cut it. It isn't a true connection in my books and it is fleeting. The Letter Writing Revolution has had me considering ending my Facebook account. I am tired of running into people whom I haven't seen in a decade who know all about my life. When I look confused they smile and say, "I read it on Facebook." It's too easy and kind of weird and a little creepy, too.

Trust me. I get the convenience of it all. I really do. I love it for advertising my business and for notifications and posting pics and of course checking out everyone else's business (without them even knowing!) BUT I am starting to feel that maybe if I wasn't a part of it all, I would have more real contact with the people I really care about and who care about me. Emailing, texting and Facebook gives us a false sense of connection. The more we are connected, the more we are disconnected. How wonderful it was to see the beautiful and unique penmanship of the writer's of today's letters. What a treat to receive an actual photograph of my friend, Sandra (which I promptly stuck on my fridge door). What joy to open the envelopes to find a variety of paper.....cream linen, $ store Japanese variety and paper adorned with butterflies, flowers and stickers :-)

The people who wrote the letters that I received today shared some interesting thoughts about this whole letter writing experience:

• Thank you for this outlet....it feels good to try and think with a pen.
• Your blog has been inspiring to say the least.
• I used to love receiving mail back in the day when emailing was non-existent
• Thank you for your letter. I was like the little boy on your blog when my letter arrived.
• I had to make an enormous decision~ what special place would I choose to read and enjoy my letter.

I like to tear open letters in the post office and sit on the steps or read as I walk home. This has resulted in close calls with other people walking and the odd car. Today, due to the rain, I had to be patient and wait until I got home. As soon as I had my shoes and jacket off, I sat down at the kitchen table and dove into my letters. I hope to provide this experience to my followers who respond to yesterday's post.

I have received a few emails from TLWR Blog followers with your addresses. Thank you!! You will receive a letter from me in the next few weeks. Please email me your snail mail address to keonjulie@hotmail.com so that I may complete the "45 Letters in 45 Days" Challenge which is technically the "46 Letters in 46 Days" Challenge now that I have another new follower :-)

Have a good weekend and be sure to write that letter to a soldier, a friend or your child or that love letter that is waiting to be written. The time is now. There's no such thing has a poorly written letter. Just write down your thoughts from your heart and that will be enough.