Wards Are Power!

I'm participating in a encouraging card exchange group on Facebook right now called #fmfpartysnailmail. You should Google it, or search for it on Facebook because it is a very interesting, and fun, and challenging group/activity/whatever you wanna call it and I highly recommend it if she offers the program again. The person who operates this project, group page, etc. is organizing a link up blog where you can link one of your posts to that person's blog of that post to get more readership, and plus you get to read other cool people's blogs about other people's journeys as well. The link-up going on right now is to challenging you to write anything you want to about the written word and then link it up to this awesome blog It Just Takes One

Personally, for me, the first thing that pops into my head when I see the words "written word" paired together, my brain always goes straight to the Bible, which is also known to some as the written word of God. And my brain fills up with Bible verses like the following:

"The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of tour God will stand forever"
Isaiah 40:8, ESV

"For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart."
Hebrews 4:12, ESV

Then I kind of thought about my blog. Like that is a form of written word. I am writing all these words in hopes that someone will read them, someone will feel from them, someone will understand from them, someone will feel better about themselves because of the words that I have written. I believe it is my mission to take my words and help people understand things in a better way. Heck, I want someone to read my blog posts and stories and be able to identify with me and tell me I am not alone. We all need to know that every once in a while. And I use written words to do that. My blog is my purest and simplest and most awesome form of my written words.

But then I thought about the literal meaning of "written words' as words, that are handwritten. And that struck a chord with me. I love, love, love getting cards in the mail, cards when I'm in the hospital, cards on a holiday, cards on a Tuesday, I love getting cards! And I try to stay caught up and send other people cards too. 

There is just something so different, more personal, more intimate, more of a feeling like the person that wrote you the card is sitting on the sofa right next to you if you get a handwritten card. For some reason, seeing each different person's own way of writing, the curves they make, the way each letter is formed and spaced, the curls and curves of the letters, it tells of each person's personality so well I believe. 

Especially, in the society that we live in now. We live in a society where our phones, laptops, Ipads, and everything else are ALWAYS logged into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and on and on. Or we can text 24 hours a day, call people, leave voicemails, Skype, and FaceTime. We are a digital society. We are a fast society. We are a right now society. We do not slow down at all. Even if we ask somebody how they are doing. We don't really care for the true answer, we just wait long enough for the person we asked to say "ok" or "good" before we scurry away. We send people cute pictures or half caring questions or ((hugs)) or little emoticon hearts, or happy faces, or sad faces, or conflicted faces to let you know that we at least read your status update, but we don't actually want to give you any real encouragement, because that would take time, so here's this red heart, smiley face, and some ((hugs)) which will of course make it all better. 

This is not communicating, people. This is not how you build relationships. Keep relationships. Let people know you truly care. I am a firm believer that sending a hand written card than any one line on a person's wall that says "just stopping by to check in", or a private message, or a card in my email inbox to look at that is animated. Not that those are not wonderful and appreciated things, but, I love to get cards too. :)

I love to display the cards in my room, I have 2 special places I display cards right now: 

This is my healing corner of my bed bookshelf space and I rotate in and out, cards and notes that I've gotten from people when I was in the hospital, or when I had a procedure, or when I was just not feeling good at home. 

This is on the wall of the long hallway that goes from my door into my bedroom. It's a card rack thing. I keep cards on it. Some stay forever. Some rotate in and out. It depends what their significance is. It depends what the emotion is behind it. But I can tell you right now, that card on orange (turning drab off orange/brown color) that says "Get well soon, Ms. Fulsom" and has a big heart on the inside of it, that card is staying visible to me for the rest of my life. Because I taught that 13 year old boy with moderate-severe autism that can barely even talk, how to write, and he made me a card when I was in the hospital one time. How sweet is that? I love and miss that kid, even though he was a handful.

Another thing, you should know about me, and you can probably kind of sort of already tell. I keep every card that is ever given me (for about the past 3-5 years or so, that's the time of my life where I truly started learning the value of someone taking the time and picking out the perfect card for you, writing a little something in it and mailing it to you. It's not that easy these days, takes way longer than tagging you in a post of an inspirational quote on Facebook, but much more lovely. 

And when I say I keep every card, let me just show you what I mean. I keep every card! 

These cards birth announcements, congratulations cards, thank you cards, cards for random holidays that you usually wouldn't get cards for like thanksgiving, new years, Easter and things like that, and some handmade and drawn cards made with love that are just encouraging. 

These cards are handmade cards from the girls of the youth group that I helped chaperon trips for at my church when I was in the hospital for the 13 day time trying really hard not to die because of my potassium, get better/don't stay sick cards from people, thinking of you/just a little note cards, Christmas cards, and birthday cards.

So as you can see, I am a woman of my word. I love receiving handwritten cards. And I will save them. And when I get them out to right blog posts like this one, I will open each one up and read the messages and have a flood of emotions fall over me because I will feel like the people that wrote these cards to me are sitting right next to me because of their words, feelings and emotions being conveyed through the card and then I realize that they are no where near me. And I get sad. 

There is only one logical solution to this, it is to: 

duh, easy as pie. Just take out a pen and some pretty little stationary paper and every time you wanna comment on somebodies status right it out on a piece of paper and send them a PM for their mailing address and send them a handwritten letter, or a card, or something, that shows that you cared enough to stop your would for 5 minutes to think of them enough to send them a handwritten card. They will be thrilled, I guarantee it. I mean who seriously wants to go out to their mailbox and only find junk mail and bills. Why don't you make sure at least one of your friends a week gets a handwritten card to break up the monotony of their mailbox boredom?

Or you could do like I did and join the #fmfpartysnailmail if she does it again, or just send letters to people when you can tell they are feeling down, or if you wanna step way out of the box do what I do every year on my birthday. Every year, I write the number of handwritten cards to the number of  friends of the age I am turning that year. Friends who have supported me through the year, who have helped make me live a more easy life, who have helped me make it to this birthday alive and happy. So this year I am sending out 29 handwritten cards. So this week I am sending out 30 handwritten cards, last week I sent out 4 handwritten cards. There is just something about handwriting a card to someone that makes me feel like I made you feel better about yourself just for a minute. And that makes me feel better too. 

So I've got my cards out, and I'm ready to make your week special, maybe, if you get a card from me, for sure!!! If there is one thing I hope you have learned, it is that words are powerful. They can build you up or tear you down. They can make you happy or sad. Words can do a lot of things. We should use these powerful words to empower our friends. Come on everybody pick up a card and join in some word writing, too!