28 Days of Letter Writing

Today is Day 28 of InCoWriMo 2017, the final day, the final letter. I've done it! I have written a form of handwritten correspondence for each of the 28 days in February 2017 following a project called InCoWriMo or International Correspondence Writing Month. I've been ignoring what has been a passion of mine, and I also feel has been my "calling," yes from God, letter writing. In the past I used to write letters of encouragement for my then home church. My wife used to tell me that I wrote nice letters. I let that get away. But thanks to InCoWriMo I have started writing letters again. 

Twenty eight days of writing notes and letters has been a time of discovery and learning. I've known for sometime that my obsession with penmanship, flexible nib fountain pens, fountain pen friendly paper, etc, has stopped me from writing or at the very least, impeded getting my thoughts or mana`o across to the recipient of my handwritten letter or note. But yet I incorrectly felt nice penmanship was what everyone wanted. At the beginning the month, a lot of my letters were brief and usually started of with, "just a short note" while I struggled with my poor penmanship. I knew that had to stop if I truly wanted to make the words on my letters count. 

I mentioned about my pen obsession and how I thought it was getting in my way to my friend Joan from Rusty's Hawaiian Coffee. She has been encouraging me with my writing for some time now. And she nailed it with this, "Exactly. Less focus on form, more focus on letting words flow." As the title of an old book I have read says, Put Your Heart on Paper written by Henriette Klauser. I haven't been doing that. So I put penmanship aside, ignored the flexible nib, used a ballpoint pen, wrote on postcards, wrote in cursive or not. But I wrote. And I am writing letters. More than "just a short note." And I'm letting the words flow from my heart.

I'm not stopping after February 28, 2017 either. Now that I've gotten started, I'm continuing on with my calling. At the beginning I had compiled a list for my InCoWriMo letters to send, but I did ad lib along the way, so there are a few names left I did not get to. But those names that are left on the list are the ones I really wanted to put an effort into. I wanted to put more time and thought into writing each letter without having to worry about the letter of the day. So those names will go onto a new ongoing list titled Letters to Write. 

And to those who received one of my letters early on that said "just a short note." Let me know. I'll send another one. I do need the practice!