everyone loves mail!

everyone loves to get a letter in the mail-
what is it about mail? when it comes in an envelope- its like a treasure, waiting to be opened and discovered-

I was reminded of this a few days ago-
jane loves to read books by one of her favorite authors, Mo Willems. she has all of his elephant and piggie books, plus several other dvds and books about his other characters too. I discovered on Mo's blog, that children often write to him and include their own stories and illustrations of his characters. I told jane about this and she got to work drawing a picture for Mo. she sent it off in the mail and hoped that it eventually got to him.

a few days later, Deanna came in from getting the mail saying, "you've got to check this out!" I looked at the envelope, and it appeared to be a hand-written letter from Mo himself!

I immediately began to think all kinds of thoughts:
"wow! did he really write this himself?"
"does he respond to every kid that writes to him?"
"how much time must that take?"
"what a cool guy!"
"I mean I already thought he was cool, but now I think he's really cool!"
"he's like the modern-day Dr. Seuss! and he wrote my kid! how special is this?!"

jane opened it up, and it really was a special note from Mo.

to jane- this was cool- but just about as cool as a letter from Grandma. she thought about what she might write him back- now that they are letter-pals or something.
but to us, this was really, really cool and thoughtful.

and it reminded me just how special it is to get a handwritten letter in the mail.
if you know me at all, you know that writing letters is one of those things that I often do.
people often refer to it as something that has been meaningful to them- many students have shown me letters from me that they have saved for many years.

like Mo- I have invested in special stationary, envelopes, stamps, stickers, etc-
but after receiving that letter in the mail-
I'm that much more committed to spreading love and grace through the post office and the mail box.
I want to take the special-ness and the thoughtfulness of my letter writing to the next level; and I'm already so inspired with ideas of how I can make this tool more effective.

if you're a leader in any way- I want to encourage you to invest in some stationary. custom is best, but if you can't afford that, then just pick up some cards from hallmark. send something to someone in the mail every week; and people will begin to think thoughts about YOU like the ones I thought about Mo-

God is love.
-rev-rob