I'm still reeling from one of the most beautiful evenings of my life. I spent this weekend with my oldest and closest friend at a farm in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It was just what I needed: some time to breathe. Of course, as much as I valued that breath, I value even more that it was taken away by a wonderful, wonderful man. I had known him for years but had seen him for only brief weekends or nights when I went to visit my friend in our hometown. And despite my lack of time spent in his presence, I had, and certainly have, a deep admiration for his character. Imagine my surprise and delight when he told me that he had always felt the same way while we were walking through the forest. And his hand clasped mine.
It's difficult to write about the evening we had-- there's so much to say, but it feels strange to write about it because I honestly feel like no words can ever describe its flawlessness. We had long, intimate conversations and kissed each other sweetly. It was honest and kind and, oddly enough for me, sexless. Sadly, we had to part the other day, but he left me with a final request: to write him a letter.
What a perfect suggestion!
There's something so beautiful and personal about writing letters-- there's something magical, these days, about seeing another person's handwriting on a page, and seeing the creases in the paper that he bent with his own fingers. Excited, I told one of my close friends about my evening, and that I was to exchange letters with the person I had made such a quick connection. My friend, who is a notorious technophile, replied, "Really? Letters? Super lame. But I guess I can dig it."
Me: It's not lame at all! It's perfect!
Him:
Let's be honest: letters are obsolete, and pretty much exclusively reserved for invitations.Me: No, they're terribly romantic. And there's nothing better than the excitement of receiving a letter.
Him: There's something about riding a horse drawn carriage too, but you don't see people doing that all the time.
I chuckled, and after reminding him that riding a horse drawn carriage, aside from being slow and impractical, would be fucking awesome, I returned to my girlish warm fuzzies, and pulled out a pen and paper. As I writer, I was delighted that I'd get to share my feelings with prose-- it's always been easy(ish) for me.
But to my surprise, it was one of the most difficult things I've ever written (and let me tell you, literary analysis and linguistic research papers are no damn picnic). It felt strange to write such a passionate letter to someone. Writing a love letter has sort of an arrogant assumption attached to it-- that the person you're writing to reciprocates the deep feelings that you're professing. Naturally, I was nervous making such honest and head-over-heels remarks to someone who I had only spent one romantically-involved evening (albeit, an amazing evening) with.
It's unfortunate that I was so frightened to write my feelings down, but I certainly know how that fear was ignited: years and years of being honest with boys, only to discover that passionate statements, more often than not, scare them away. Scaring this man away was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do. But, I didn't want to hold back. I wrote him everything about how time spent with him made me feel, and remembered an exchange we had had earlier for inspiration: I told him that, since I was in such awe of his character, that he was the first person in a long time who actually made me nervous. He looked at me and replied, earnestly, "Really? Because you're the first person in a while who has made me feel so calm."
I never thought that I'd find cheesy, lovey-dovey statements to be so genuinely romantic, and forgive me if this post was too saccharine to share, but every once in a while, it's important to realize that it's actually possible to have an amazing, wholesome, healthy experience with a man. I know I certainly need to be reminded that truly good people exist, every once in a while.
Do any of you ladies have pen pals? Have you ever written a love letter? Do you think they are cute or silly?
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Comments (38)
I always write my bf love letters =) Of course I've had pen pals..but I'm never so good with writing them lots. I always forget or life gets too busy to sit down and write..or I just don't like doing it lol ; I'm bad I know. My bf loves my love letters that I leave him before he goes to work etc;
My boyfriend is in college, so I send him "love" letters all of the time (or at least, I'm planning to this year. I swear.) When I babysit his little sister I log what we did that night and leave it, along with a cute note, on his bed so he can find it when he gets home. =]
I think writing cute notes and letters is a great way to keep the flame alive when you're separated.
I feel blessed, I got a ton of love letters from my beau when we were long distance. "101 Things I Absolutely Adore About You", among others, I have them saved. It is NOT a lost art: it's a beautiful thing. We still leave eachother notes on a random basis and I wrote him one for our last anniversary. Bring back the love letters :(
Arent sending letters slow and impractical? Unless you're dropping it at their house yourself, I dunno. lol.
I remember writing my one and only love letter in 6th grade. I wrote it to a boy and told him how cute and amazing I thought he was (how shallow I must have been to have written this letter after only 2 days of seeing him in class). I sprayed it with perfume and dusted it with blush to make the paper look old and romantic.I love to send letters. I have a few steady pen pals; it is definitely old-fashioned though!
I love writing love letters. I write a lot of them actually.
I love writing letters. I would do it all the time for whoever I was dating, and only one of those guys wrote me back. He's now my ex, but that's one thing I miss about him. I write my current boyfriend letters and told him he should write me a letter, and he promises he will, but we've been together a year now and.. nothing.
The way to my heart is an aubade... :)
I love writing letters. It's sad that it's really a thing in the past but I hope I never stop doing it. Even if they aren't love letters.
I haven't written a love letter since elementary school. I used to pass around love notes to this girl in my algebra class in HS until I found out one of the guys passing the notes started to write them himself-I ended that crap real quick after that.
"Writing a love letter has sort of an arrogant assumption attached to it-- that the person you're writing to reciprocates the deep feelings that you're professing."
This, this, this. The story of my life.I used to keep penpals, but the only one with a guy was with a man I had met in England. After leaving, we had kept contact through letters, but the postage was bothersome and we soon moved to e-mail. Nothing came of it, though, and we don't talk anymore.
i love love letters---i once bought an ex a lover letter writing book so he'd learn to write a damn letter. LOL i think he did one attempt that didnt go so well and well, i accepted that he just wasnt a writer.
I got a stack of love letters, notes, so sweet sexy and poignant I couldn't believe they were real...turns out they weren't. Just a stack of lies. He was great with words, clever etc. I got goosebumps everytime I got another note, letter, etc. I read them, re read them and memorized them...then read them again one last time that day I threw them in a tub of water and mashed them to a pulp and destroyed them forever because they were nothing but lies.
I figured it MUST be true if he put it in writing and signed it and everything...right? Wrong!
The sincerity of the message means more to me these days than the media. How do I dupe thee? Let me count the ways.
I have written a letter confessing my feelings. I regret the person to whom I wrote to, though. He basically ignored it. Hopefully this hasn't scarred me for life, or i'll never write one again.
I think it's a lot sexier to open a love letter with some intimate touches - like a squirt of perfume or a lipstick mark - than a "I
U" text message.
Love letters are sweet...but really are a thing of the past. People communicate through text most of the time anymore, or on Facebook...it's really sad. I've only recently started talking on the phone with someone. And no one talks in person even, it seems.
I really wish I lived in a different time, where people were more forward, and where people weren't afraid to write their intimate feelings down for someone else. Much of the time anymore, it's like a game of tag...everyone is always playing some kind of game.
my boyfriend is in the navy and when he was in bootcamp we wrote letters to each other every day :) it was fun and so easy to write to each other... when he left we weren't sure exactly where we stood... but we started writing love letters to each other, not knowing at first if the other one was doing the same. after a couple of weeks feeling nervous about the letters i had sent, i got like 10 letters from him one day, all sweet and romantic. it brought us so much closer together and i am beyond in love with him!
I love letters.. My boyfriend and I love writing and we just write a lot. I write to my friends and my friends write to me - even if there's no distance.
My most recently ex boyfriend and I wrote letters to each other all the time. I sent them back because I couldn't keep them, but they were the most beautiful things ever. It was a lot easier for him to write out his feelings on paper and send them in the mail, and some of the most intimate details of his life were written in those letters, things he had never shared with anyone else.
yup, still write letters. to friends and boyfriends.
My boyfriend is on a mission for our church and I haven't seen him for 9 months. Letters are the only way we keep in contact and let me tell you, those love letters are so wonderful :)
I write love letters constantly, do they ever get sent out? No. But I do write them haha.
Ive written a love letter. 7 damn pages, and if Aaliyah can sing about it then its not stupid. I WISH someone would write one for me lol, but id probably be dissapointed because most men i know cant write for shit. Me on the other hand..not to toot my own horn, but im awsome at getting down at what I want to say on paper.
But it was def. nerve racking to write, and after we broke up I felt like an idiot for writting it. Everything I said I wanted to take back but I cant because it sits in pen, and im sure he wont throw it away.
@TheRedheadChronicles@xanga - Sometimes I wish that too