Let's Write Letters

There’s just something different about a handwritten note. It sticks with you…regardless of whether you were the author who pinned the words or the recipient receiving the parcel on the other end. I have several shoe boxes full of my most favorite and treasured handwritten notes, letters, and postcards received from over the years. Many are from my family, others from college friends, and still others covered with international postage sent from friends in far away countries. I treasure each of them.

For many people, letter writing is not a natural thing. I get it. And even with the best intentions to write letters, we ourselves (as note card makers!) find that at the end of the week, we have pushed off those letters we meant to send.

We live in a time when it’s expected that we send off and respond to hundreds of text messages, emails, comments, DM’s, and more on a daily or sometimes hourly basis. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s convenient and works well for many things. I’m more grateful than ever for Facetime and the ability to communicate with friends and family using these technologies especially today as there are fewer and fewer interactions as everyone does their part to stop the spread of COVID-19. That being said…

Social distancing on the surface seem to go against everything that we stand for: CONNECTION. Yet, perhaps this moment in time is an opportunity for each of us to dig a little deeper and to reach out and connect, to share and support one another through a small, but powerful practice called “Letter Writing.”

"People are more important than things: more important than jobs, more important than phones, more important than goals & material goods. Our relationships and the connections that come from them... that's what it's all about. Sometimes it's through small gestures like letter writing ... "

— Megan Fowler, Brown Parcel Press founder

This is something we have been wanting to do for a while, but to be honest, we just hadn’t made the time (like we so often do with our own letter writing intentions). With everything that has unfolded in the last two weeks, we know that this is the perfect time to share this with our community as we lean into our own letter writing practice. To do this, we created a FREE Guide to Letter Writing called Let’s Write Letters. It’s not a challenge (unless you want it to be!), but rather a tool that we hope will encourage you to make space for a practice and habit that can spread joy, reduce anxiety, and emphasize gratitude …

Within the guide, we share some of our favorite tips and resources including:

• The nuts and bolts of letter writing: who to write to and what to write about

• The tools we love to have handy

• How to create habits that stick

• A printable checklist

In the coming weeks, our three woman team at Brown Parcel Press will be sharing behind the scenes photos and videos, inspiration and more, during our letter writing practice over on our Instagram @brownparcelpress and right here on our Journal. We invite you to join along, whatever that needs to look like for you.

Stay safe.

-Katherine