One night I was perusing the web during my normal insomniac routine and discovered this website: The World Needs More Love Letters.
The title already caught my eye, but then the founder’s story literally took my breath away. It was as if I was reading a bio of mine from a former life, should I have moved to NYC. That could have been me.
I almost wish it were I because this idea is SO up my alley that I immediately spent the next few days searching for the perfect stationary to get involved. I even sent a somewhat fan-obsessed email at 1am that may or may not have been a little psycho. But hey, love is psycho, right? And I so love this idea.
Their motto is literally to make love famous. Y’all know I love love!
So what do they do? They bundle love letters for strangers who need them. That’s right – the good stuff: handwritten notes, old-fashioned love letters, and paper-to-pen beauty is what they offer the world.
Amazing, right? You read these inspirational stories and choose to write one of these lovely souls a letter. Don’t you just want to tell them how great they are?
And let’s get down to the real, nitty gritty of this… The world does need more love letters. What makes you happier… a tweet or an envelope in the mail that’s not a bill? I’ve kept every piece of mail I’ve received in the past few years. I keep them because I love what it means to send a handwritten note…
A handwritten note means someone took the time to really, truly talk to you outside of 140-characters. They practiced their handwriting and not their clever Facebook captions. A handwritten note takes time, and we all know that time is precious… so if someone gives you a handwritten note they must think you are precious, too. And you are! So shouldn’t you be reminded more often?
I think so.
Letters are personal. They are real and not for show. You can put words that mean something to someone on paper and it lives forever. It is honesty and integrity lined with hope for something more in life. It is back to the basics and in the best possible way. Thank you, Heather, for bringing old-fashioned love back into this digitally-fucked-up world.
Whip out your stationary, your pens, and uncover that heart on your sleeve. Let’s get to writing, y’all. We should all get to work towards making love famous.
Imagine the smile on your mom’s face if she got a letter, just because, instead of a text on Monday letting her know you’re still alive after the weekend.
Imagine the smile on your friend’s face that you haven’t seen in months and you do your best to keep in touch but sometimes life gets in the way. This letter will hang on their fridge as a reminder that you’re there no matter how far.
Imagine the smile on the stranger’s face when they pick up the envelope laying on the Starbucks table, Publix aisle, or bathroom stall, after living a life with problems you can’t imagine. But you can imagine it would make them happy. Wouldn’t it make you happy, too?
I want to bring love back into the world. Real love; not “if you love me then like my Instagram picture” kind of love. The more smiles we share, the more smiles they share, and in time we just live in a happier world.
Don’t you want to live in a happy world?
So let’s do it. C’mon! Tell someone that they are fan-freaking-tastic – because we all sure as hell are.
Let’s make love famous.
This is great.
🙂
There’s nothing like a letter. Email just can’t compare.
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Absolutely true! It just means so much more I think.
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Oh I love this! There’s just something about a handwritten letter =D This an amazing idea!
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Isn’t it?! I’m absolutely in love with it.
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Thank you for making this website known to the world through your blog. I am so glad I know about it now. 🙂 #snailmailrevolution!
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Yes! Snail mail lives!! You’re so very welcome 🙂
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YES YES YES I loved this. People (especially hubby) thinks I am nuts for wanting to write notes to people and keep every written letter and card I receive. I think writing lends itself to be more personal like you said. Anyone can type an email in a moment between doing other things, but writing a letter takes more time and effort, and frankly the people around me are worth the time and effort. Even though my hubby teases me about it , I know he keeps every single one of his.
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I totally agree with you! And I’m glad he keeps your notes 🙂 I think everyone appreciates them more than a text or email… even if they don’t admit it 😉
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I’ve always liked the act of letter writing – so vintage – but then I find my hand cramping because I have too much to say and not enough stamina to get it down. Or I write the wrong word/phrase than I meant to, and I have to scratch it out, which totally ruins the aesthetic (not that my calligraphy is very aesthetic after about two lines). But once I wrote “Happy birthday” on a Christmas card, but I had paid $4 for that thing, so I couldn’t just toss it away. Sigh.
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LOL @ the “Happy Birthday” on a Christmas card!!!
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I love this! Sometimes, I write out what I want to send as text, and take a picture of it and send that instead of typing it out. Handwriting is so personal and endearing. Thank you for sharing this. ❤
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Oh I love that idea! Simple but still gets the personal point across. Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
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Love this post! I’ll definitely be writing some letters for the website, what a cool idea. My sister-in-law inspired me to get back into letter writing. I actually wrote a post last month about falling back in love with sending and receiving mail if you get a chance to check it out 🙂 https://daisy9979.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/youve-got-mail/
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Yes! It felt really good to write these letters. I think they have new batches each month too. I will definitely check out your post and thanks so much for stopping by mine! xoxo
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Reblogged this on Transitions in my Life and commented:
I wrote last month about how much I love sending and receiving mail so I adore this post! The website, The World Needs More Love Letters, is an amazing idea and I’m looking forward to writing some letters.
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Reblogged this on my personal thing and commented:
This is really good 🙂
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Handwritten letters are the BEST! There was a great Broadway play this winter called Love Letters (had me in tears), but all about the lost art form of writing them, and how life changing they can, indeed, be.
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Oh that sounds lovely! would’ve loved to see that play. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing the love for snail mail 🙂
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“Let’s make love famous.”
I used to secretly want to receive a letter by mail; no email or a text message. I wait and wait and wait, I’m the most impatient person in the world but with love, I somehow love to wait.
Last year I travelled for the first time alone all the way in the other side of the world. Walking in a place I’ve never seen before and completely at awe of everything, I saw a store and bought postcards. Wrote on them and sent them to three people I thought of that very moment.
I never got my letter but I got three separate messages from all mediums possible saying “thank you” and “I miss you” “I love you”.
Let’s make love famous – that should be our life drive.
Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
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Such a lovely story! I always buy postcards because I think they’re fun to send and to receive. I truly hope you get your letter one day 🙂 and I’m almost certain you will! xoxo
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I absolutely love this! such a great story, and it’s definitely motivating to start handwriting notes again!
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Yay! I’m glad I can help make snail mail a thing 🙂
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Agree-agree-agree! So happy you wrote this – and so beautifully, too! Maybe we can start a whole new movement. After all, people writing love letters can’t rob banks at the same time….
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Yes!!! I sure hope this helps start a movement because I cannot get enough of handwritten notes! xoxo
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I want to send 1-2 letters today. Today a handwritten note feels so precious because of the time and effort to go a little further in the sentiment. Lovely post.
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Yay so happy I inspired this! Thank you.
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