I Love Square Envelopes! Reviving The Lost Art Of Snail Mail

These days I'm a city girl, with a tiny mailbox in a row of mailboxes that bills slide into but packages could never grace. Every so often instead of those efficiently sized business envelopes, my heart leaps to see (even if it's crammed in there!) something else: large, mysteriously lumpy manila envelopes; colorful square envelopes; postcards. All of these addressed in real human handwriting.

When I was a little girl, a favorite book to take out of the library was full of ideas of unusual things one could send through the mail. I was immediately addicted and began to cultivate pen pals, even if they were only as far away as across town. I kept it up through college, too. Once, memorably, I sent a friend at home a plastic shark of the sort we used to garnish certain ridiculous mixed drinks at the restaurant where I worked. Another time, I opened one of the loveliest silver square envelopes I've ever seen from a thrilling new correspondent to unfold a giant sheet of vellum covered in her tiny, gorgeous cursive. The wind caught it as if it were a sail.

Sure, I email and text and Facebook and Twitter. And indeed, I'm posting this on the internet, not licking square envelopes and sending them to your homes. But such is our world. It doesn't have to mean the end of one of my favorite past times that creates my favorite artifacts. Long Live Letter Writing! Viva Snail Mail!

Want to follow my lead? Here are some tips:

1. Get tactile. Take yourself on a date to your local stationery store. Begin with what feels good in your own hands and pleases your own eyes. Heavyweight paper, the lightest vellum, handmade rice paper with flowers pressed into it... Run your fingers over loose sheets. Try the pens on the provided doodle pads. Splurge on gold seals or whimsical stickers, if that's your thing. The sensory experience of letter writing is as delicious as the sensory experience of letter receiving. Find out what you like, and bring a couple sheets home.

2. Embrace your penmanship. With all the work we do on computers, some of us hardly lift a pen anymore except for signing credit card receipts. But you learned to write and print (remember the difference?) in grade school, and like riding a bike, you still know how. Try to be legible, but embrace the unique shape of your natural handwriting. It says a lot about you, as you've heard, but mostly that you're alive and caring. A page covered with your unique script is a treasure to the recipient.

3. Know your audience. Sit down and write a letter to the person you'd most love to receive a letter from. Take all the time you would appreciate that person taking while you write. Include details they'd love, the sort of details you hope they'll include in their response to you. If you wish, you could include a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) in your letter, but even better is to choose your pen pal wisely, finding someone who will surprise you with artful and lovely letters crafted just for you.