The Art of Letter Writing & Winter Cleaning

For some reason everyone likes to do spring cleaning, but right now I'm in a bit of a winter cleaning mood. With no work or school to go to, I have been trying to clear away things that I have had in my childhood room since well, my childhood..I'm still in the beginning of the purge because some of the things are harder than others to part with. However, I have sent a couple of bags to the Goodwill. Success! I have some clothing I've been hanging on to, and I am hoping to try to sell it somewhere, like a consignment store (like Plato's) or perhaps online. I'd like to think I can maybe make a little money off some of the nicer clothing that I no longer want. And..I've been saving t-shirts- some I am hoping to have made into a t-shirt quilt, and some I am hoping to use for crafts.

While working on looking around my room at the things I no longer need, I found an envelope full of letters from the summer of 2011 when myself, Captain Something Fun, Granny Eyre and N. Gaffa (who doesn't regularly contribute to the Twenty-Something's blog) wrote each other every week via USPS! Previously I had taken an old binder and filled it with many of the letters I have sent back and forth with my friends since we started our letter writing tradition (including letters and cards from Martha S. and Miss Ellaneous), but for some reason the letters from Summer 2011 stayed in their own envelope...so I proceeded to take out these letters from their envelopes and include them in my binder of letters and cards.

For anyone not part of the TwentySomethings group, I will fill you in on our letter writing tradition. Much like the sisterhood of the traveling pants, the original group of TwentySomethings (a.k.a. the 3 or 4 musketeers: Granny Eyre, Captain Something Fun, myself, and N. Gaffa) were not ready to part when our first two semesters of college were over. We started two traditions at the end of that school year, our annual camping trip and a promise to each other to keep in touch through letters. This was not just any casual letter writing experience either, we made rules. We were supposed to write a letter each week and send it out a certain day (Monday, I think). In addition to the letter, we made a friendship bracelet and we passed the bracelet from one person to the other every week (supposedly). I'm not sure what happened to the bracelet but I am really glad we kept in touch through those letters that summer. The next couple of summers we didn't keep as strictly to the rules and so I don't think we received or sent as many letters either.

I say all of this about our tradition, because as I put the letters in the binder I thought about how sweet it was that we started this tradition. All of the TwentySomethings haven't been writing as many letters to one another and I find the urge to write you all a letter. Occasionally I find surprise mail in the mailbox from one of my fellow TwentySomethings and it always makes me smile. Now that we don't all see each other regularly and we are all on different paths, it's hard to keep in contact. This blog is helpful in allowing us to see some of what we are all up to and thinking about (which I'm grateful for), but it doesn't go as deep as a handwritten letter could. I write this down in a post to encourage you all to write a letter sometime soon. It may not be to me, which is fine. But I encourage you to sit down and take the time to write someone a letter, tell them what has been going on in your life and ask them what they have been doing. Whoever you choose to write to, I can guarantee your letter will brighten their day. And if you need more encouragement to get out the pen and paper, READ THIS blog about the mutual benefits of letter writing! :)

I hope to hear from, or see you all soon!
The Farmer's Daughter