Cut off from the outside world......

Hello Everyone,

We have been out of communication with the outside world since Tuesday, the day we arrived at the cabin. No phone and no Internet for two days. And you know, this was a good thing. I have a cell phone that works outside if all of the satellites are functioning and the Moon is in the second house and Jupiter aligns with Mars....yadda yadda. Which means I was standing out in the snow while speaking with a Comcast representative and discussing my issues.

To make a long story short, two days and two very competent technicians that spent three hours at the cabin, we are connected. We have all new wires from the pole on the street throughout the cabin.

So what did I do with my uninterrupted two days you ask? I practiced communication of a different and "old-fashioned" kind. I wrote letters. Yes, actually wrote letters to put in my Christmas cards. I always do a Christmas newsletter filled with pictures that I named the "Wilder Times. " This year, I actually hand-wrote a lengthy message and enclosed it in the Christmas card with the newsletter.

Who doesn't enjoy receiving a letter in the mail. A letter you can save and savor again at a later time. There's something so personal about a real letter instead of an email that you just dash off without really thinking.

I have some old letters that my parents wrote to each other in the 1940's. I never knew my Dad was such a romantic until I read those letters. Every letter started out with ...."My darling Edith."

Back when our first son was born in the 1970's, money was tight and the price of a phone call home was almost prohibitive so I wrote weekly letters to my parents. My Mother saved every single letter that I wrote through my pregnancy and our son's first year of life. They were tied with a ribbon and stored in a box that I'm sure she forgot about. Those letters are like a diary and better than the baby book that has so many blank pages. Although I wrote about everyday experiences, they are precious memories long forgotten. I gave them to our son Chuck. They are his story, his first year in great detail and tied with a ribbon by his grandmother.

So write letters. Turn off the computer, don't answer the phone and write a letter to someone you treasure.

As always,
Lynn