Handwriting A Letter--Do You Still Do It?

We have so many wonderful things in this great technological world of today. Even so, there are things I miss from long ago. One of them is writing a personal letter rather than dashing off a typed email, although I send plenty of those.

I have just finished a handwritten letter to a very ill friend. She can have no visitors or phone calls but I thought that a short personal letter could be read to her by a family member. Years ago, when we both lived in different states, we wrote to one another on a weekly basis. With a pen and stationery. I looked forward to those letters in my mailbox.

My mother and I wrote to each other every week for all my adult years until she became too ill to write and spent her last days in a nursing home. I missed those letters filled with her family news and her thoughts on current events or a book she'd read. When I spied one in my mailbox, her familiar handwriting on the envelope made me anticipate the reading once I got inside the house.

With email so easy and at our fingertips on a regular basis, we write few personal letters today. That's rather sad. Note that word personal, because that is what a handwritten letter is. It means someone took the time to get out paper and pen, handwrite the missive, put it in an envelope, address same, stamp it and take it to a post office or mailbox to send the letter on its way. Effort? Yes. Caring? Yes. I find somethng comforting in writing a letter on paper with a pen.

Long ago, love letters were saved and tied with a ribbon to be read again and again. How many of us print and fold and tie emails with a pretty ribbon? Nope. Instead we save in a computer file or delete them.

Wartime letters that were saved give us a wonderful picture of what life was like during WWI,WWII, Vietnam or Desert Storm in Iraq. Pioneers who wrote letters to those back East left us with an accurate picture of what life was like for these adventurers

Do you enjoy opening an envelope and holding a letter in your hand to read it? How often does that happen now? I love getting personal letters. Most of mine come via email, and I'd certainly rather have them that way than not at all. I do love finding an envelope with my name handwritten in my mailbox. How about you?

Do you write any personal letters in 2016 or are yours all done via email or texting? How about sending one just to bring back memories of old times?