One of the best ways to make someone you care about happy is to sit down, write something from your heart and send it to them. Taking the time out of your life, however busy you are immediately reassures your letter’s recipient that you value and respect them. Over the last twenty years letter writing in the UK has dropped by 87%. People still send seasonal, condolence and greetings cards but even then, how many of us take the time to compose a personalised thoughtful message, or do we let the prescribed message in the card do that for us and sign it off ( in a hurry).
Writing a letter from the heart is an act of creativity and courage and like all skills it needs to be nurtured and practiced or inevitably we will forget how to do it and it will become redundant. Writing a letter that contains a poem takes things one step further and enriches the experience for the writer and the recipient.
There is nothing quite like receiving a welcome letter and the anticipation and excitement that is part of the opening and reading experience is unique to this form of correspondence. The flutter of excitement that can sometimes accompany a text ( with a collection of emoji’s) doesn’t get close to the feeling of your heart smiling that you get from a personal letter.
So go on, be brave, make a bit of time and write a letter and post happiness to someone you care about. And let me know if you get one back!