My friend Becky has been part of a project called "More Love Letters" for months now. She has shared her experience both on her blog as well as the More Love Letters blog. The project has gained momentum as the months have passed - so much so that the "write a letter to your latte maker" project was featured on Oprah's Blog!
All along I was so proud of what Becky, Hannah (the creator and founder of the project), and the other letter writers have done. But truth be told, I was a bit reticent to participate in the project. I actually haven't ever really wrote a love letter to someone I know, so how could I write one to a stranger? (post edit: actually, this is not technically true as I have sent many thinking of you cards and such to friends and family! I never thought of them as love letters, but that is really what they were.)
Then Becky told me about their 12 Days of Love Letter Writing project and I knew it was a good time for me to get involved. I signed up to participate and received my letter request in late November. It read as follows:
Elizabeth is in her early 20’s and got married a couple years back. Without warning, her husband recently decided to leave her.
Her close friend wrote, “Elizabeth was strong for a long while but has been shutting out all those who have been supporting her, loving her and trying to point her in the direction of God. Elizabeth is a highly creative individual who is multi-faceted and full of potential. She has been through the ringer and is resisting her true life callings.”
This love letter bundle will be a bit different. Instead of a giant bundle of love letters, Elizabeth’s friend plans to leave a love letter for her each day. She wants to leave them on her car, at work, send them to her house etc. “My prayer is that this bundle will change her life and bring healing from this situation.”
Over the last 1.5 weeks since I received the letter request, I have thought about what I could say to comfort this person that I have never met. I was a little nervous at first, but then I thought about moments when the kindness of a stranger has brightened my day, and it didn't seem like such a daunting task anymore.
The first sentence was the hardest one to write. But then the words flowed after that. While I have not experienced the difficulties of a divorce, I have gone through difficult things in life and I reflected on the words from others that got me through.
Now here is your chance to get involved. I encourage you and invite you to join me in writing a love letter to Elizabeth. It can be a couple of sentences. It can be paragraph upon paragraph. Each love letter is as unique as its writer.
If you want to participate, please send your letter to this following address within the next week:
More Love Letters
P.O. Box 2061
North Haven, CT 06473
It is my hope that through the love letters that Elizabeth receives, she will find some peace, comfort, and love during this holiday season.
18 comments:
This is such a great project, I'm so glad that you, Becky and Amber are involved. Each story is so inspiring and makes me want to sit down and write them a letter *right now* and that makes me feel so much better because I know there are more people out there that don't even know each other, that care.
Love this project and I'm actually on my way to Walgreens now to buy some fun cards- one for Elizabeth, one for the family Amber wrote about and one for my real life best friend who also needs a love letter :)
Lisa, this is utterly inspiring! I am going to join in. The least we can do in the world is offer others a little kindness!
Yay yay yay! It sound like your love letter will be just what she needs! Thanks for being part of this campaign with us!
Wow, I've never heard of this campaign before, but what a nice idea!
Aww this is such a lovely idea!
Such an amazing project! I am featuring a love letter on my blog next week but I think I might take some time this weekend to pen a few of my own to those that are being featured during this project.
What a beautiful idea!
I am planning on dropping my love letter in the mailbox today and now I want to write an extra one for Elizabeth. I LOVE this project and I am so glad it is brightening some people's days this holiday season!
Hi Lisa,
Fun to meet you and Kellie through Hannah's More Love Letters project.
Such a feel good event for me. I appreciated your reticence at the start of the project. Love is one of those words that can make us all feel a bit uncomfortable.
Not enough love out there for us to be comfortable with it. We're more encouraged to show unlove.
I'm sure Elizabeth will appreciate your letter of encouragement!
Thanks, G.
Happy to be sharing in this effort along side of you. Happy Holidays!
Kellie
What an awesome project!! Thank you for sharing it, I will definitely participate.
In general, I'm supportive of this project, but this friend of Elizabeth's letter rubs me the wrong way. I know it doesn't give all the details and what not, but just from those few details, if I was Elizabeth and my friend wrote those words and asked people to write me letters, I'd kind of be pissed.
Oh, Lisa, she will be so very happy to receive your letters. So happy she will cry. This is such an inspirational post.
What a thoughtful project :-) I like this!
That's great that you are doing this! I think it's a really good idea. I salute you. This is a great time of year to be giving! And who doesn't LOVE getting a handwritten note!?
This project is the true spirit of the season.
I will do this. Thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness this is such a neat project. I def want to participate and as I told a group of students today this is the time of year where it's so important to reach out to others. I love how I can say I am now able to practice what I am trying to teach.
Thank you for sharing this with us!
PS: Hope the Dr appointment goes okay and you can get some direction as far as surgery or no surgery.
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