The Lost Art of Letter Writing

We, as Ranger School wives, girlfriends and fiances, are intimately acquainted with a tradition long out of practice - the art of writing love letters.  At this vantage point of Day 54 (36 to go! Hooah!) synthesizing all I would share about day-to-day life, our hopes and dreams, and how much I miss my other-half into a peppy little letter of encouragement has gotten quite natural.  But for me, it’s been a learning experience. 

After about two weeks without a response I began to feel as though I were writing into a void and I wondered if M did receive my letters, or if he was even alert enough to read them.  Let's be real here, it's hard to write "I love you! Stay strong!" a thousand and one different ways. 

Needless to say, as his only contact with the outside world, those letters and cards are far more important than I realized.  So I want to add a little letter writing, and specifically “love letter,” inspiration as well as come up with a bit of a letter writing resource for those with husbands just starting Ranger School. 

Inspiration! 

I came across this amazing movement the other day: "the world needs more love letters."  I cannot possibly explain it better than the site's creator, Hanna Brencher said herself: 

I’ve discovered that no matter how tough we act, we all still need a love letter from time to time. That even in a world crammed tight into 140 characters and constant status updates, there is a still a great craving for the handwritten note. But most of all, I learned with certainty that the world needs far more than just my own love letters.

Her site is a recipe for love-lettering, and when my creativity began to wane, this guide to The Art of love lettering revived it in a heartbeat! 

I’ve heard some really great ideas over the last month, like sending funny pick-up lines (was that you, Ashley?) and of course, sending the upcoming weather report, news articles, and jokes (right on, Courtney!)  Please contribute your brilliant ideas! Add an idea in the comments and I’ll update the list, to your credit of course. :)  Those of you who've been through deployments, I'm sure you're pro's at this!  What got you through it?  How did you stay positive in your communication?

I’ll try to backtrack a bit and make this list a resource for creative Ranger School letter writing: 

• Addresses for each phase 
• At the beginning of Ranger School when you don't know your guy's Company or Roster number, just put the class date (like Class 1-13) in and the letter should get to him. 
• Gum: a stick or two of gum in each letter is usually allowed.  Some RI's may take it away, but to date I haven't heard of anyone getting in trouble for receiving a few sticks of gum in their letters. 
• In the last bundle of letters I sent a feast: Spearmint ("Freshen up smelly!"), Mystery 5 (because life is a mystery as a Ranger Student), ("You're sweet as") Apple Pie, and good old Mint Chocolate Chip.  Carried away? Perhaps.   
• Send Seasonal Cards 
• Raid your mother's stash of old greeting cards.  
• Is this normal?  My mom had a huge stack of cards.  Soo funny!  She pulled out a graduation card, and as I was saying some snarky remark about how that must have been one she forgot to give me when I graduated high school 5 years ago, she said "hmm. I think this was for a French Horn student" (when i was 3 yrs old!) Trumped.   Some of her 20 yr old cards are tacky as heck but M will certainly get a laugh. 
• Perfume
• Seal with a kiss
• Sports Recaps & Scores
• Photos
• Laminate a wallet size photo or photos for wet & soggy Florida Phase
• Print photos of fun memories together as a happy distraction
• Isn't there some way to send a photo from your phone as a postcard? Sounds super relevant :) 
• Number your letters 
• So your guy can sort them out if/when they get delivered out of order or all at once
• I'm totally not organized enough to do this consistently....but it makes sense!
• Dream together. 
• For us, it helps to write about our future and all that it may hold.  Our next PCS, trips we'd like to take, sitting by the fireplace at Christmas together...whatever it takes. 
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• {your advice here}

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