Mailbox wonder prize

I don't know about you, but whenever I get something in the mail other than a bill, junk or an expected package, it feels like I've won a prize. My day has a little more surprise and wonder to it as I read a postcard, open a note or sit down to savor a letter. But we don't write letters anymore, we rely on email or text messages or voice mail.These are all very efficient, but they are transitory, moments in time that rely on pixels and electricity to exist.

I recently stumbled across a challenge, put forth by Mary Robinette Kowal, to write a letter every day for the month of February. And I thought, yes!

Ms. Kowal says, "When I write (letters) back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. 'By the time you get this…' It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral." She's right. Letters are far more intimate.

She then offers this challenge:


1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs.  Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
2. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

I'm in. If you'd like to receive something in the mail from me, email me your address. I'd love to write to you. You might get a letter, a card, a hand-made postcard, a leaf, a swatch of fabric I thought was beautiful, a marble or something else entirely. Give it a shot, your own mailbox wonder prize awaits.


(And, for the person who never received the last thing I sent, I promise to mail everything from the post office, not relying on the local letterbox.)


(c)2012 Laura S. Packer