Extra Postage Required

It's true, I've got it bad for mail. It's an addiction, this thing I have for mail. Since I can remember, I've always loved all things postal and personal correspondence in particular. When I was 12 years old I had 21 foreign pen-pals. In fact, I'm still in touch with two of them. I met Kerstin from Sweden when she came to stay with me for 10 days. That trip was a Christmas gift from her husband. He knew Kerstin and I grew up together through the mail and wanted us to meet. I now write with her daughter but mostly electronically.

Brice and other friends are astounded by the mail I receive from strangers on a daily basis. "It's the pen-pal thing," I say. I love that I have a shiny indention on the middle finger of my right hand. I hand write letters nearly every day and seldom is it just one letter in a day's time. Most people will say they don't have anything exciting to share in a letter. All they have is work and their life at home. I say bullocks! What people see and experience in a day is bound to be different than me. We all appreciate a story yet we are quick to discredit ourselves and our own stories. We all have opinions, questions, fears, accomplishments, people in our lives, places we visit and moments of reflection. I enjoy taking a closer look at myself and what is around me and sharing that with someone else. I understand what it is like to be a recipient of someone's story and I know that what I have to say is just as valuable. I've made very close friends through my efforts as a pen-pal and there's no greater reward than that. All it took was a piece of paper, a few words, a little time, an envelope and a stamp. Pretty simple when you think about it.