When I was a kid, we didn’t live very close to my grandma. So she would write to me. She has the spiritual gift of card-sending, and she regularly sent cards that talked about how the calves were doing and the weather they were having and what was growing in the garden. I still have some of them, and they are awesome. They were not exciting, but they were real and full of love.
We moved, and I wrote to my friends afterwards. Sometimes we got to call each other, but mostly we had letters back and forth. Things would be so different now, but back then, those letters were my lifelines. I wrote letters on into high school and college, pouring out my heart to friends who were far away.
I have played with letter-writing over the years: the To Whom It May Concern occasional series, my recent letter to my 16-year-old self, and last year’s series of letters for Atticus. I love epistolary novels and was raised on the epistles in the New Testament. While my adolescent scrawls were about every topic under the sun, something about letter-writing these days sparks my imagination in certain ways, gives me focus.
Which is why I have decided to celebrate NaBloPoMo by writing letters to Atticus again. A lot of people write letters to their babies every month, which is something that Dooce popularized, as far as I can tell. I wasn’t up for that idea. I needed more time to reflect, and also I instinctively resist doing things that other people have done. But I find that, a year after those 30 letters, I have some things I would like to say to Atticus about his life, about motherhood, about our choices for our family.
I am not sure I have written 30 total posts this year, so it will definitely be a challenge, but I am excited about the rhythm of writing every day for a month. What about you? Are you participating in NaBloPoMo? Do you enjoy writing letters? Do you write letters to your kid(s)?
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9 Comments
In my youth I had several penpals including some in different countries. It was something my school encouraged and the excitement of receiving a letter with a foreign looking stamp was great. I miss letter writing these days, there is a certain charm in a hand written letter that an email could never deliver.
I guess it is similar with digital images. I did love the mystery of not knowing what I had taken pictures of and discovering them all over again after they have been developed.
I still have a shoebox full of old letters from my family, friends and penpals, it is like a little treasure box and makes for a good read on a rainy afternoon.
Rich
I’ve written a letter to Spencer every month for his first year (then I’m done!). For me, I just needed a monthly reminder that parenthood is more than food and diapers. It’s helped me be more intentional about what I want to impart to him throughout his life, beyond table manners and multiplication tables.
Well, that and it has kept my brain slowly moving through the fog of sleep deprivation.
I’m so glad you’re doing the letter-a-day again! I’m planning on doing it, too, as it’s Simon’s birth month and I feel like I have lots to tell him about our first year together — and then about our future years together. I’ve been trying to keep a list of subjects and I’m still a little ways off from 30, so we’ll see if I’m able to do it! Going into labor cut me short last year!! I think of you often and miss reading your thoughts on this space, so I’m really looking forward to November!
My husband and I started writing in a journal for our little guy once we found out about him. :~) We’ve been writing about once a week between the two of us. It has been neat to read entries from this time last year!
I’m always excited when a new post of yours shows up in my reader. This month’ll feel like Christmas!
Oh, goodie! It was last year, during your letters to Atticus that I first discovered TAGD, and now I feel you and this blog are dear friends… I’m thrilled to get a little peek again into your parenting this way.
You guys are really sweet! I am excited about this month, too.
I earnestly look forward to your letters. I have taken to writing letters of late. I wonder if I can come up with 30 recipients and write a letter to each of them. That’s how I’d have to handle it.
i am so looking forward to the letters!! i’m still trying to gear myself up for it, though i can’t wait. i’m just afraid they’ll be things like, “I said sit still to you 18 million times today. Please listen better tomorrow. I love you, Mama.”