despite the cost of postage stamps, writing letters is still one of my favourite pastimes. thanks to the Post Crossing website, i am now the happy keeper of heaps of addresses that belong to penfriends who live all over the world. though most of them seem to be from Germany...
with some i write about my days at the moment, with others i write about my dreams of the future. some are obsessed with the Situation, others are blissfully living in their own happy world. some have children, others don't... some have cats, others don't like pets of any kind... what we all have in common is the enjoyment of the process - finding the right paper, either decorated already, or decorated by ourselves. what washi tape? what stickers? just keeping it plain? to add something to the envelope? and what envelope?
finding a letter {or 3, somedays} in my letterbox is so very enjoyable... to receive that piece of paper, written on by someone who lives quite a lot of miles away, in Finland, or Bavaria, or Portugal, or Japan, or Bremen, or Yorkshire, or Ohio, or Groningen - i love reading about their lives, their days, things that trigger them, make them happy, whatever they feel the need to share with me - a stranger that they got to know on the forum of the website, whose interests they thought were interesting enough to give it a go.
some people i've been writing with for many years now, and they've become a lot like friends. people i feel i can write anything to, and they to me. a few i had a deeper connection with, one that went beyond just the regular writing about our day to day things and wishes and desires. someone specific i felt a bond with that i hardly ever have with people. sadly, this connection splattered onto the rocks, as the other person somehow suddenly felt triggered by what we wrote about and stopped writing. this too happens...
writing letters can be eye-opening, heart-warming, thoroughly enjoyable and quite annoying. it's faintly artisan {cos done by hand, and not by some digital means}, probably good for the soul and us letter-writers belong in a long line of famous folks who are known well for theirs...
long live letters!!
2 comments:
Ik had vroeger op de middelbare school altijd penvriend(i)en(nen), meestal mensen die je ontmoette op vakantie en dan bleef schrijven om contact te houden. Later na de geboorte van oudste zoon had ik ook penvriendinnen via het blad Kinderen.
Tegenwoordig gast contact via mail of app, masr dat is toch anders dan het schrijven van een brief.
vroeger had ik er inderdaad ook een paar van na de vakantie, en een paar uit de Hitkrant of zo... in England had ik een paar mensen leren kennen van over de hele wereld waar ik mee bleef schrijven, maar dat verwaterde helaas. nu via Postcrossing is het weer helemaal terug, en heb ik er en stuk of 30 - vaak met flinke tussenpozen, dat dan wel... maar zo fijn en zoveel leuker dan via email...
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