Letters

I have mentioned in a couple of my other posts that I love letters. I think they are the most beautiful, expressive form of communication ever conceived. There is something so personal about a letter; maybe it's the fact that it's written in a person's own handwriting, which no other communication is. It's as if a little of the essence of a person is captured in those few minutes they spend with their hand pressed against the paper, perhaps with the tip of their tongue poking out of the corner of their mouth or a slight smirk on their lips as they concentrate and enjoy the things they are writing. There's also a vulnerability in a letter....it's not necessarily permanent, like a typed document, it's not a traceable email or text message; it's a piece of paper, easily destroyed or kept hidden and safe. The paper or envelope may even carry the scent of the sender, which an email never could.

In short, letters are the most personal, wonderful way to communicate with another person.

One person with whom I communicate regularly in this way is my friend Robert. We've written letters to each other since 8th grade, and I hope the habit will continue for quite some time. Notes we passed to each other in the hallways or shoved in each other's lockers became letters in envelopes with stamps when he went to college a semester early so that he could live away from home for a while before serving a mission for our church. Now that he is on his mission we continue to write, and I am so grateful that we got in the practice of communicating in this way a couple of years before he left, because now I can read between the lines and see his face and know what he doesn't say in ink.

Every day that the mail comes and doesn't bring me one of his letters, the sun shines a little less brightly. It's all I can do to stop myself from running to the mail box on my way home from class every day. Even when I know it's too soon for a letter to come, I can't help getting excited! And then of course the days his letters do come....no amount of rain can bring me down from Cloud 9. I love hearing about his experiences on the mission and I love watching his character and testimony develop and grow under the trials of the work. And I LOVE getting to write back and tell him all of the amazing things I'm learning and the ways that I'm growing in college. It's so nice to write to someone who knows me so well and who I know will be honest with me because I know him just as well. Those missionary letters are extra special.

The reason this is particularly on my mind tonight is because I was going through all of our previous letters tonight, the ones from high school and his first semester of college when I was still at home, and now to his mission letters. It was so amazing to see how much our lives changed and how we became the people we are now through reading those letters from him. He's always been so eloquent and so sweet. He always makes a point to tell me something he likes about me or how thankful he is to have me as a friend, and he constantly notices the little things. One of my favorites is the hand-made Valentines card he gave me our junior year. It was an imperfectly cut white heart that wished me a happy Valentine's Day and explained his gift to me: a huge tube of Sweet Pea body wash from Bath and Body Works. He had heard me say, just in passing a few days before, that I'd run out of body wash and had meant to go to B&B Works to get some. AND HE REMEMBERED!! He remembered what store I'd said I was going to go to and went there and found the most feminine, soft thing he could that he thought I would like. It was kind of a strange gift, which he acknowledged, but it was one of the sweetest, most sensitive things anyone has ever done for me. Man, he's the best. :)

Sorry for the long swoony rant about how much I love Robert's letters, but I am currently in the waiting phase, so I'm getting anxious to get the letter I know is on its way, and it's definitely on my mind, plus the whole nostalgic kick I'm on from reading all those old letters. So now you know for sure: I'm a hopeless romantic :)