Day 19 - Letters

As I mentioned before, when I first moved away from Heather we were still kids. We were so devastated to have to be separated at all but it made it worse that it was so far away. When we left, I wasn’t sure when I would ever see her again. We promised to write each other and that we surely did. It would have been so awesome if we could have had the luxuries of today’s technology with the free long distance calls, camera phones and video chat (not to say we didn't talk on the phone but not as often as we would have liked to, due to the minute charges). But in a certain sense, it warms my heart to look at my stack of letters- to be able to touch them and see and feel the age they are starting to have. It’s nostalgic I suppose.

I think back to when my mom would announce that I had a letter in the mail, how exciting that was and I’m sure it’s safe to say Heather felt that same way. To take the time to sit down and chronicle what was happening in my life and her doing the same was such a compliment (though I feel the impact of that hits me harder as an adult). I had other friends that I wrote for a few years after we left but as I became a teenager they all dwindled away, some quicker than others. But not my letters to and from Heather. They never stopped. Even through adulthood- even after we had phones with a camera- even after we had the ability to text, we still sent letters. Obviously it was far less often than our texting and calling but letter writing was our thing since we were children.

It is with that in mind that I decided on what to do for today’s intention. I sat down and wrote a letter. It’s signed, sealed and stamped and tomorrow it will be in the box and on its way.

I choose to write a letter to my dad. Although we talk on the phone sometimes, I think a letter of appreciation for his years of service as a father is probably long overdue and would be of great surprise. Not because it’s Father’s Day. Not because it’s his birthday. Just because….

Because Heather and I wrote letters for so many years and in her honor I’m passing that on. Maybe he will write me back. Maybe he won’t. He may just call me when he receives it which would be perfectly fine. Either way, I believe that when he sits down and reads my letter he will be filled with happiness- the same way I was when I would read my letters from Heather.