The Love of Words.....Gratituesday

It's Tuesday and that means it's time to get your mind moving in grateful mode and look around and see all your blessings - choose one today and join us at Heavenly Homemakers to share what others are grateful for.
I love words, written, spoken, sung, you name it. I always have. Some of my earliest memories are of writing poetry for my Grandmother. As a child I had pen pals - fellow Bay City Roller fans (if you are still out there - email me and we can reminisce!!) and others ;-)
My Grandparents were 'Snow Birds' they flew the coop of the Canadian north every fall and spent the cold Ontario months in Florida. I wrote, they wrote. The letters from those days are among some of my most cherished possessions.
In college I made friendships with people from other areas and during summer breaks we would write letters and keep in touch - this was before email of course - college kids don't do that now I would venture to guess. These 'mail relationships' continued in some cases for many many years - it was over 20 years ago now my college days......sigh.....
Well in recent years sadly, there has not been much letter writing. That was until about a year and a half ago when I was trying to come up with ways to get my 'reluctant writer' writing. Every kids loves mail and so I set myself about the task of finding WonderBoy some pen pals. It worked beautifully - in fact he is always on the look out for more - he has even adopted one of mine!! But I am getting ahead of myself a little......in the process of getting him up and running in his new hobby I reflected on how much letter writing had always been a part of my life and how I missed it. I decided to try and find some kindred souls and ignite the love of letter writing in my life again.
I am so grateful I did. I have about an handful of faithful and wonderful letter writing friends who have brought so much joy to my life in the past year or so! There is Cathy in Illinois - WonderBoy has adopted her as 'Grandma' even though she is just a 'Spring Chicken' ;-), Lynne in Maine is a sweet and dear kindred spirit, Rebekah in Wisconsin is a lovely young lady who makes me smile, Kathy in Tennessee has taught me much about soap making and goat raising. The friendships that have grown between letters is a blessing beyond mere 'words'. A phone call last week from one of these dear ladies lifted my spirits for days when they were low and that was the purpose of the call ;-) We exchange laughter, recipes, tips and funny stories, books, tea bags, photos, bookmarks, crafts, ideas, instructions, encouragement but most of all love - for that I am so very very grateful.
Want to know more about finding a pen pal - let me know.....it is a lost art that the world would be well served to revive!!