it's a away

Sent off Bec's snail mail letter per Ver's letter writing circle. I forgot that I had sealing wax, had to settle for scotch tape.

I found that I had to write slower, think of each word (and how to spell it - ain't no spell check). But I did enjoy the moments of slowing down, of feeling the paper and watching the ink from the pen saturate it. Sometimes I would hesitate in elaborating some things worried I would run out of paper, and space to write it on. And I never ever manage to write in perfectly straight lines across the page especially when there are no guidelines. So much I could have said, maybe so much more I would have said.

My cousin who lives in Spain now received our wedding invitation. She emailed back saying they get so little mail from the US now that having something come from across the ocean and around the world was really something.

As a kid I got into collecting stamps. My mother had old sheets of the Philippine peso stamps with the various heroes on them. Stamps from other countries were always so much more interesting, the way they called themselves on the stamps. The smallest countries often had the largest most colorful stamps like Antigua that often had Disney or cartoon characters on them. I bought a stamp book that had pictures of common stamps from around the world and I would match them up. Even joined one of those stamp clubs where you get sent new stamps each month. I think collecting stamps spurred the travel bug in me, and now when I travel anywhere, I will often send myself a postcard from wherever I am, just so I can have them waiting in my mailbox when I get home. Emails can be from anywhere. Postcards have a journey all their own.

The unlimited vastness of email allows you to just keep on going. The hand written page makes you think about boundaries and edges and other sides of the paper. And how much is postage for "x" number sheets of paper. And then you have to wait, because you know it will be at least a day or two before the get it and read it and possibly respond. And while you wait, you think about the next letter you want to write and all the other people you'd like to write to and where is that darn sealing wax.