I have been sending cards to the troops for over a year now. Not ones that I've written to them, ones that I've made, left blank, included an envelope and sent over to Iraq, Qatar and Afghanistan so they can use them to write home to their spouses, families, etc. When my husband was overseas, he opened one of the boxes and it was emptied in 15 minutes!
The men & women serving our country do still write home. Nowadays, deployments are a little easier because of email,
webcams and
Skype, but most of our troops and their families still value the written word. I think this is because you can hold on to it, reread it, tuck it in your uniform or helmet, put it under your pillow, cry over it, keep it in your purse or backpack or tape it to the mirror in your bedroom.
Cards and letters are tangible things - something that your loved one wrote, something that they touched -- it was
theirs and now its
yours -- it connects us with our loved ones or friends or whoever wrote the letter.
Do you have any letters from a grandmother or other relative that has passed away? When you pull them out to read them, what do you notice? Her handwriting? The date? Does it remind you of whatever was going on when she wrote it? Does it bring a tear to your eye as you picture her sitting at her table or desk writing the letter
to you? See? The written word lasts longer than an email! I have bits of paper with little notes written to me by husband and left on the counter when he went to work - they are just scraps, but they were written
by him. I haven't kept all of them, but I've kept a lot of them. So whether your message is on a scrap, sheet of notebook paper or a handmade card, it is a
souvenir, a snapshot in time, a memory.
Take the time today to send someone
you love a message - something you want them to know, something you should or want to say to them, or just say hi. Give them a
tangible piece of yourself.
I'd love to hear your comments!
