Happy World Letter Writing Day! It can be a true act of intimacy to receive a personal letter, especially if it’s handwritten and from heart to heart. I’m Hannah Telluselle and this is The Source Podcast, your source of inspiration and good things. Today, we’re going to celebrate letter writing and get inspired to continue this tradition, even if we still send them online. 

When I grew up in the 80’s, it was common to get a pen pal from another country far away. We wrote letters about our families and our days in school and the activities we did after, and on weekends. Sometimes, we added a photo of ourselves so the other could see how we looked. Imagine, writing to someone you don’t know how he or she looks! Other than that, it was the gift of words travelling across the globe. And often on sweet stationary and with carefully chosen stamps whenever possible. Here in Sweden, what is printed on our stamps differ during the year. Sometimes, we have our royal family and sometimes a picture of someone the country just lost or to commemorate a sports event. During the summer, images of pretty flowers adorn our envelopes, just as Santa Claus and Christmas themes, during the winter. My grandfather and my brother and I, collected stamps too for a while of course. It was a treat to get one that neither of the others had in their folders, just like with foreign currency saved from our travels. My grandfather also once showed me how his ring on his little finger with our family shield on, was used in the older days to make a seal with, in red wax. He also kept a special knife to open letters with, and a small marble holder holding envelopes inside his secretaire. I used to picture myself in a long dress sitting there with only a candle to see and write with, like in the old movies. I tried writing with a fountain pen a couple of times too of course, but found it too uneven and too slow, for my fast thinking. Yet, I’m still particular about which pen I’m using and for what, just like choosing journal. A Parker pen, can never go wrong. What do you prefer? Black or blue ink? Or writing with a pencil?

I imagine both Isadora Duncan and Princess Ka’iulani wrote lots of letters and receiving answers back from their poet boyfriends overseas. There’s something about receiving a letter with someone’s desire steaming in it. Have you ever received such a letter, or sent one? A real love-letter? I luckily have. The first handwritten love letter given to me, was from a French boy I met on a family vacation in St Pierre sur Mère when I was a young teenager. I glued it into my diary. Another time, I received a letter of closure from my then boyfriend. I have always felt it easier to express my feelings through letter writing and think of it as being given both time and space for the other to sit with it, instead of ending up in heated arguments, possibly worse due to bad timing. A letter can be read again, and again. And a letter can be written from the most private of our inner selves. To keep my writing private as much as possible nowadays, and without any interruptions, I like writing on my laptop offline. Have you tried doing that? Does it make a difference in how you feel? Less stressed?

Then we have the professional letters that we write from time to time, appealing to a higher authority for help, or inviting someone to our business. As someone who has worked in advertising as a copywriter, I’m going to share a professional secret. When we write our texts to the target group, to sell a product or service, or to create a good vibe about a brand, a trick is to visualize an actual person in the target group that we write to, as if a letter, but in the form of an ad. This is how we can really reach someone, instead of only speaking generally.

Finally, we have the kind of letters we do for our own personal growth and healing, such as writing what we wish we could have said to someone who has passed away and that we never got a chance to or dared to. Or letters to ourselves, our inner child or our future self, or to our soul simply. Then it becomes an exercise in listening to our higher self and let it communicate to help us reach personal insights. And, we can write letters to God or like Anne Frank, to a diary as if it was a dear friend. A letter simply, is a candid conversation on paper.

So, what is on your heart today? What have you felt and thought of lately? Who would you like to invite into your life, whether someone new or someone that used to be? Or is there someone you rather wanted to terminate a relationship with? Is there someone you wish you could tell something that you don’t want to say online for everybody else to read? We can of course never quite trust that it doesn’t end up there anyway, but hopefully when we write with raw honesty and vulnerability, the recipient keeps it private. 

Letters enable us to communicate heart to heart, to improve our understanding. Who can you confide in? And who can confide in you?

The next episode of The Source Podcast airs on September 13^th, for celebrating Positive Thinking Day. Tune in on September the 13^th, to get a life coaching tip about transforming your thoughts. 

To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.