The love affair began when I was eight-years-old. Our third-grade class from the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania got pen pals from a third-grade class in Eagle Pass, Texas. My pen pal, Alma, was the daughter of a mail carrier, just like me.
That’s where our similarities ended, but we wrote to each other regularly up through high school graduation, sharing secrets, learning about each other’s culture and family traditions, writing about school, etc.
Besides making a friend, through that correspondence, I discovered what has become a lifelong love affair with the wonderful world of stationery, postage stamps, stickers, sealing wax, pens and anything else having to do with letter writing. I confessed to that love affair last April on this blog.
Bold letters
Now I have a new reason to share my letter writing obsession with you. Women of the ELCA is combining Bold Women’s Day and International Correspondence Writing Month to create a month of letter writing devoted to bold women. It’s a month-long effort of building authentic community using honest words.
Women of the ELCA is combining Bold Women’s Day and International Correspondence Writing Month to create a month of letter writing devoted to bold women.
Here’s how it works. It’s really quite simple.
- Following the suggestions of International Correspondence Writing Month, on each day of February 2019, write and mail (or hand-deliver) a card, letter, note or postcard to a bold woman in your life. Share bold, honest words with women who are challenged or need encouragement. Or share bold, honest words of thanksgiving for the role the women have played in your life of faith. Even a simple “thinking of you” note will do.
- Keep a running list of the bold women you’ve written to. Take that list to worship on Bold Women’s Day, February 24, 2019, and offer up the names of those bold women during the Litany of Thanksgiving that opens the Bold Women’s Day liturgy. Or use them in whatever way your unit is celebrating Bold Women’s Day.
A new reason to dip into my stationery trove? I’m all in! Won’t you join me in the Bold Women’s Day Challenge? If, by chance, you need to augment your stationery supplies for the challenge, one option is to purchase them through Amazon Smile, and then Women of the ELCA benefits from your purchase.
Who knows? Maybe one of you will receive a letter from me next month. I know a lot of bold women in this organization!
Linda Post Bushkofsky is executive director of Women of the ELCA. Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash
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I”m in! Surprising people with a snail mail note or letter is such a fun thing to do! I’m going to a women’s retreat next weekend and will take some cards with me to write and send!
So true Janice. A handwritten note or letter is so special.
Give me some sample of a bold letter writing, how it might sound.
That’s a good question, Bobbi. It all depends on the author and the woman receiving the note or letter. I’ll give a couple of examples.
I know a woman who acts boldly on her faith in Jesus Christ through a robust prayer life. I might write her a note and say something like: I know you hold me and so many others in prayer, offering up petitions every day. Thank you! To know that you pray this way gives me a sense of peace.
I know another woman who is a great advocate, working to change unjust legislation. I might write her a note saying something like: It’s not easy to act on your faith as you do, advocating for those whose voices are unheard. Thank you for being an advocate. You are such an example to all of us.
I have a couple of favorite contemporary writers. I’ve never met them, although I feel like I know much about them through their writing. I might look up their address online (probably through a publisher) and send them a note in February. thanking them for the bold ways they have tackled difficult issues. So, you don’t have to personally know the woman you are writing too.
So, the letter writing itself isn’t necessarily bold, and the letters don’t even have to mention that the recipient is acting in a bold way (although the letters certainly could contain that kind of statement). The act of writing one letter per day in February is meant to cause each of us to pause, remember the women in our lives who have acted boldly in some way, and to write them a note.
I’m thinking about creating a little printed insert that I place into each envelope, explaining why I’m doing this, a combination of WELCA’s Bold Women’s Day and International Correspondence Writing Month, maybe including the WELCA URL, welca.org.
Be as creative as you like!
I love this idea and I hope I can live up to this challenge. I am often remiss in sending cards or letters for special occasions. I think about it but find it hard to carry through sometimes. I too have a bounteous supply of cards and stationery so I need to dust off my nice fountain pen and make this commitment.
The premise of International Correspondence Writing Month is that letters and cards would be handwritten and mailed (or hand-delivered). Receiving something in the mail is different from receiving the same information via email. That said, no one within Women of the ELCA will fault someone for sending an email every day of February to bold women in their lives.
Not all of our senior women, the very women that gave their all to begin the Great Organization of the Women of the ELCA are privied to computers much less know how to turn one on! These ladies have grown in years and would love to receive a note or a phone call! The communication skills to and for our seniors has not and is not what it should be!
One of the downfalls of Women of the ELCA; you’ve generated all your energy to key in on younger women which is great, but you’ve set aside our ladies of older years !
For your Bold Letters do “emails” count? For some women the email is best because they can enlarge the print and it’s less expensive. Bold letters are a great idea and if emails or even phone calls are included it could be a valuable connection for all. Thanks