When was the last time you sent a handwritten letter to a friend or family member? Not an email or a text or a Facebook message, but a real, honest-to-goodness letter. When was the last time you received a personalized card or letter in the mail (or anything that wasn’t a bill or an advertisement)?
The art of old-fashioned correspondence has fallen by the wayside with the growth of more tech-savvy means of communication, but there is still nothing like opening the mailbox to find an envelope from a loved one.
The second week of January (January 8 to 14 for 2012) is Universal Letter Writing Week, which is great motivation to pick up a pen and write a heartfelt message. You can use these ideas as journaling prompts for your eyes only, or you can keep a copy for your personal journal and send the letters out to into the world. Find your favorite pen, dust off your stationery and start scribbling!
Pen Pal Journaling Prompts
1. Be appreciative.
Take a few minutes to thank someone who has been extra helpful to you recently. Write a quick note of appreciation to the restaurant manager who went out of her way to find your lost cell phone, the colleague who spent an hour teaching you a new kind of software or the friend who took you out for ice cream when you were having a bad day. Let this person know how much this gesture meant to you.
2. Get in touch.
Write a letter to someone you miss, a loved one who lives far away from you or a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. It doesn’t have to be a long account of everything you’ve been up to since you last saw each other. Keep it simple and manageable – just let the other person know you are thinking of him or her.
3. Be introspective.
Write yourself a letter in your personal journal. This can be an account of your goals for the future, words of wisdom for your past self or simply an encouraging message for the present.
4. Remember an occasion.
Look at your calendar, and reflect on the important dates that are on the horizon for the people in your life – holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, remembrances. Send a card to a friend or family member commemorating the occasion.
Which of these (or other) journaling prompts did you choose to celebrate Universal Letter Writing Week? Please do tell us… someone still must be doing handwritten letters, I’m certain of it! Do you send handwritten thank you notes? I got two beautiful boxes of writing paper for Christmas and I’m sending Happy New Year thank you notes to everyone I can think of.
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