Nearly Lost Art...A Family Tradition

   When is the last time you received a hand-written card in the mail? What about the last time (if ever) you sent a hand-written card to someone? It is nearly an extinct species except for the few sprinkles of people, here and there, who still practices the art and understands the true meaning of a hand-written card and can forget technology exists for a few minutes.

   I know two of those few-and-far-between people, my Dad and my Grandmother. They take great joy in this nearly lost art. Getting a card from them is a meaningful experience. The note is not generic. It is personal and from the heart. You can count on it to be covered in stickers, poems and witty phrases. You know when you receive a card from one of them that it was written  just for you, out of love, with care and thought. It is a pure delight!

    My dad has recently passed away and I now feel a deep desire to pick up where he left off and not let this lost art die. I feel the need to get a box of cards, the perfect pen,  a roll of stickers, a cup of coffee and set down at the kitchen table carry on this family tradition with the hopes that it becomes a yearning  in my girls to one day do the same.

    Today we are all about trying to out-do each other, see who can get the most expensive and best whatever. Even so, we still can not get  as much joy  as walking to the mail box, opening the mailbox door, seeing the hand addressed envelope with stickers and personal notes written all over the outside and know with out a doubt that as soon as you open it you will be filled with happiness.

    Isn't it funny how the simple things in life mean so much more to us and last so much longer than the expensive whatevers.....sometimes they even linger after we are gone for the next generation to cherish and to carry on.

    There are not many photographs of my dad, later in his life, and photographs of my grandmother are even more scarce. The cards for them are like the photographs for me; composed out of love, the need to preserve and the need to share something close to my heart with the ones I love.