Peaceful Pastime

I don't know about you, but nowadays I often feel overwhelmed with everything that's going on in the world. I'm a journalist, so I'm not blaming the media, but often it's just too much to handle...war, mass murder/suicides, economic woes, salmonella poisoning, and the list goes on and on.

But, last Thursday, our electricity was off at home for almost the entire day. It went off in the middle of our morning rush, after I had fixed breakfast but before I had dried my hair. We lit some candles and finished getting ready. After too many phone calls to the electric company, they finally showed up out on the highway to replace the pole that had broken off at the ground. (Best I can tell, the wildfire the week before had weakened the pole, which was never replaced despite being burned, and then high winds snapped the pole at the ground.)

When the lights went out, instead of creating panic or mayhem in our household, the sudden quietness enveloped our lives in a gentle peace.

Except for our voices, there was total quietness. No TV blaring out the tragic news of the day or the upcoming weather. No radio screeching the latest hits or telling me what they decided at the recent city commissioners' meeting. No hum from the computers. No rumbling or buzzing from the dryer. Things we never realize make noise (coffee pot, lights, etc.) were quiet.

The lack of things to compete with brought down our own level of chaos. No need to yell in order to be heard. No need to rush...there was much less to do. I couldn't dry my hair with the hair dryer; a quick brush would have to do — it would dry on the way to work. I couldn't check e-mail or the blog. Those would have to wait till later. There was no choice.

Letter writing can produce a similar sense of peacefulness. Writing a letter doesn't require electricity, Internet service or much of anything else. All you need is a writing utensil, some paper (sometimes, that's not really necessary -- you can mail a coconut with a message written/carved on it or a wooden postcard), an envelope (again, not really needed -- any piece of paper can be folded into an envelope or self-mailer), a postage stamp, and access to postal service.

Stamps can be ordered by mail (ask at your post office for a form). Depending on where you live, you should be able to drop your letter in a nearby mail box for the postal employee to pick up. Obviously, some places don't have door-to-door mail delivery (see this earlier blog entry), but I think most do.

I'm recommending that you take a few minutes, maybe more, today to sit down, relax and write a letter. Turn off the TV. Turn off the radio. Turn off the (yikes!) computer. If it's still daylight and nice weather at your house, take your pen and paper and sit outside to write a letter. Enjoy the peacefulness of reconnecting with an old friend, introducing yourself to a new friend or catching up with family.

Demise of hotel/motel stationery

Last month, our little family took a little trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, and stayed in a couple of motels during our short trip. When we travel, the first thing my daughter does when we get to a motel/hotel room is look in all the drawers. Then, she unpacks everything, even for a one-night stay.

This trip, one thing was obvious, there was no stationery in the bedside drawers. Now, I'll admit, we weren't staying in the ritziest places, but once upon a time, just about every motel and hotel had some type of writing paper and envelopes in each room.

I'm sure the nicer places may still supply their guests with stationery, but even the last higher-end hotel we stayed in had only a few sheets of been-there-a-while paper.

I guess we've traded fancy hotel stationery for free wi-fi and Internet access.

Pens and paper and cards!

One thing that seems to be common among letter writers is our love for all the trappings that go with writing letters...the paper, the pens, the envelopes, the stamps...and the cards, oh my, the cards! It's all just so much fun!

I have my favorite pens, including a silver Parker pen that I gave to my grandmother and then I inherited after she passed away. No one else likes to write with it because it's skinny and slick; they think it's hard to hold, but I never have a problem with it. I don't like rollerball pens; I never can get the ink to flow smoothly. But, I do love a good fountain pen. Problem is, right now, my fountain pen leaks ink, and I haven't figured out out to solve the problem yet.

On the other hand, I also find it hard to pass up fun pens. In my purse, I have the Parker pen and a collection of very inexpensive colored pens. And, just yesterday, I splurged and bought a large package of multi-colored Sharpie brand pens. I don't yet know what I'll do with them, but I couldn't resist the "Limited Edition Cafe Colors"! Who can walk past pens with names like "Earl Gray" "Pomegranate" and "Mocha"?

And, the paper. Oh boy do I have paper! I'm hoping this 365 Letters project will help me whittle down my stationery collection. I have lined paper, plain paper, hotel stationery from places I've never even been, special "onion skin" paper I bought way back in high school when I had all the overseas penpals and needed thin paper to cut down on postage costs. I haven't bought stationery in years, yet, still, my paper and card collection fills to overflowing a large under-the-bed box!

Speaking of cards...who can resist them? I have the standard greeting cards — Happy Birthday, Hope You're Feeling Better, Sorry I Missed Your Birthday, etc. And, then I have notecards, blank cards with pictures or drawings on the front and lots of room to write on the inside. And, just in case I ever run out of decorated notecards, I have plenty of really blank ones that are just waiting for me to decorate.

I'd say envelopes are the least exciting part of my letter-writing paraphernalia. When I was a teenager, I worked for American Greetings, keeping up the card rack at a retail store. When cards were damaged, lost or stolen, the envelopes were left over, so I built up quite a collection of odd-sized envelopes. Nowadays, my daughter and I enjoy making our own envelopes from magazine covers, calendar pages, old books and even yellow legal pad pages.

Hopefully by the end of this year, I'll have used up quite a bit of all this stuff...then I'll go shopping for more!