The Gift of Mail

I love to get mail.  I've been this way forever.  I remember waiting on the porch for the mailman when I was growing up.  Believe it or not, during the holidays in the old days we sometimes got mail twice in one day!  Of course most of the mail was for my parents, but they allowed me to claim some of the "occupant" mail for myself.  Occasionally I received a real letter.  Of course, people wrote more back then.  Writing letters was a way of life.  My oldest sister lived in Florida and she wrote us regularly.  She sent letters to my parents but she also sent ones to me - addressed to seven year old ME in my OWN envelope!  Of course I wrote back.  Sometimes in the summer I would pick a pen pal from the back of a comic book (those were kinder, gentler, safer days) and exchanged letters until one of us lost interest.  When you met friends during the summer you would exchange (no, not emails) addresses with promises to write faithfully - or at least until the activities of the new school year took over. 

I still look forward to the mailman (or the mail lady in my case) each day.  Most of the mail is junk variety looking for my money either by direct donation or by selling me something.  But occasionally there is a letter and of course this time of year there were cards, some with little notes keeping me up to date on friends and family.  To me the mail has always represented promise.  You never know just what will show up in your box.  Each day is the chance to receive a nice surprise.  Granted, sometimes these are not nice surprises, but I don't focus on that.  I'm always hopeful that there will be an unexpected good thing in the mail.

My family is well aware of my love for mail.  Son #1 faithfully sends me a post card whenever he travels.  Often he has been home for weeks before the postcard finds its way to me.  But they are always appreciated and I've even started to keep them in a special notebook.

But this year he gave me a gift of mail!  He gave me a set of hand made notecards with my state on the front and all the envelopes stamped and a nice pen.  Then he told me that he bought a similar set (with his location on the front) for himself.  And he told me that if I would write to him, he would respond with his notecards - hence the gift of mail!