Stop, Oh yes wait a minute Mister Postman!

Ever since childhood I have loved writing letters!
when I was around 10 years old I had my first penfriend, and later on in life more followed. The letters at the time always started with the words  "Dear xx , I hope you are well, for so am I" followed by a description of what had happened in life lately.

When I was 21 I was at a Folk highschool in Sweden, where I met a girl from Iceland. We became close friends and I went to Iceland with her for the summer. Besides visiting her family and seing some of the amazing country (really!), we worked in a fish factory in a remote part of the iceland.
However, the summer came to an end, and we agreed to write to each other. And I tell you - for the next couple of years we were very regular costumers at the post office, where we sent packages and letter at least once or twice a month. And not short postcards or letters - an average letter would be 12 handwritten A4 pages..!

At that time I lived alone in a timy appartment far from my family. So when one of her letters came in the letterbox, my day was saved! I was kind of disappearing into an inner "cave" or sanctuary, where I felt nothing else existed, except from what she was telling me about. I would read the letter several times and in my mind already begin to concider what to write back.
Then, within a few days, I would sit down at my desk in the evening, light a candle, make a cup of tea, and sometimes make myself a small drink of Glenfiddich whiskey (bought on a trip home from Norway) and get ready to write her a letter back...Before I knew, hours would have passed, and it would be 1 or 2 o´clock at night...


(this letter is an old one from 1949 from google, so not one I have written)

A couple of years later I found a boyfriend, who lived in New Zealand, and the same kind of correspondance would start to take place with him. Only now I was even more impatiently wainting to get a letter, hoping he would send me some sweet words and tell me how much he missed me (isn´t that what everyone wants to hear?) ;-)

A funny thing is, that for some years I lost contact with those two friends, but have later "found" them again through the computer. So now we write notes on Facebook or write mails, but nothing will ever be quite as fulfilling for me as the time, when the letters were written by hand; It was literarely easier to see and feel from the handwriting which state and mood the person was in. It was easier to draw a real heart and smiley in stead of <3 and :-).  And the whole atmosphere with the candle, tea and drink are not - for me at least - so easily "reproduced" in front of a computer screen.

However - not to take the value away from the email writing. Because I doubt that I would find the time to write long handwritten letter - or that someone would care to do that to me -to the same extend  as before. But - at Christmas I will NOT compromise and write an email "christmas-card", and if I do, it´ll be supplemented with a handwritten letter or card - promise!! :-)))

Do you have any old or new penfriends, and do you prefer one type of correspondance to the other (mail versus email)?

Have a lovely and fulfilling weekend, and I hope "Mister Postman" comes by your letterbox soon ;-))


(letters found on google - wonder what messages are hidden behind those envolopes...)