Wanna know
something that I've been doing this past fall?
Writing letters to a dear friend of mine - as a pen pal. I write her once or twice a week and she
writes back to me!
That's amazing,
huh? Well, I guess not everyone is the
pen pal type of person, but I always was.
I remember having pen pals from different countries in elementary
school, and to this day since being away from home in Texas and India I have
stayed in touch with close friends through letters. I write letters at least once a month. My grandpa Troyer does the same thing, he is
an avid letter writer, an Amish man with friends all over the states, and does
such a good job keeping up with them!
(In fact he says he won over my Grandmother who was in another state by
his letter writing! ;).
Some people don't
like to write and the postal service definitely doesn't compete with our fast
paced lives these days, however there is something special about it.
A lot of times I
write to others just to let them know that I'm thinking about them, in a way
that the meaningful touch is kept in tact where in email and Facebook
and even text it has the opportunity to be lost. I write
Melissa to pour out my heart. I decided
that I needed a pen pal this fall while I was in Kolkata, India because it
would be hard spiritually and I wouldn't have any acquaintances there. Melissa is a dear friend and she speaks the
same language spiritually, I asked her if she would commit to writing to me -
I needed her! I wrote her the day that
I arrived in Kolkata and told her about all the smells and faces that colored
the city, I wrote to her every time that I needed a friend to talk to, every
time I needed to share my heart, every time my heart was overloaded.
There wasn't an
immediate response (in fact it took 2 wks for my first letter to get to her
and 2 wks for me to get her response).
However my heart was not waiting in limbo at the response. I knew that Meliss would understand and was
in constant prayer for me. Just writing
it down and sending it to her did so much for me.
We've continued to
write back and forth since I've come home to the States. What a lovely friend. Sometimes we don't need to busy our lives
with constant action, immediate response, gratification, or emotional
reactions. Indeed quick access can
actually make our lives more stressful.
We do have emotions though and need a way to understand and embrace them!
Perhaps writing
letters is a good idea for you? Maybe
you need to just go see that friend in person once every two weeks and pour
your heart out - instead of just texting or FB!
See her! Write her! But do it well, and then your dear hear will rest!
