Vintage Love: Sentiments

via squidoo

Remember the good ole birthday card? before the e-card, before texting or Facebook...the real deal that came in an envelope and appeared in your mailbox on your birthday (or maybe a day later). oh the days! {sigh}...Awhile back when I was helping my mom move, I came across this card that my grandmother had sent to my grandfather back in the day.

postmarked march 28, 1946

A little quirky, but so much more fun than a text message on your birthday!She even added her own little poem on the back...
My favorite part: "at the hour of nine in the morn; no inspiration came- only corn" (This must be where I get my clever [corny] sense of humor!)

This got me thinking: how is it that within the past 20 years we have come from this (a method used for centuries):

via compassionate news

to this as our accepted form of communicating with eachother:

via mother lover goddess

As I was contemplating this the other day this commercial for the new Windows 7 phone. If you can, take a second to watch it. you won't regret it! I had to watch it 3 times because it was so funny...and true. The new wave of technology has certainly replaced lovely written sentiments with more impersonal texts and emails. Don't get me wrong, I loooove email. I am ecstatic when I open my inbox and I have an email from a friend or my mom. It makes my day! So, sure, emails and e-cards can be sweet and personal. But how much more sweet and personal would it be to open your mailbox and amongst the bills and ads, find a handwritten letter or a funny birthday card.

I found this book a couple years ago at Anthropologie and had to splurge and get it. It's full of old pictures of people in love and real love letters. Cheesey, I know... But I'm a sucker for love!

And if that's not enough sentiment for you...

My very favorite gift I have ever given anyone is a book of love poems that i gave Tom for our anniversary when we were dating. It was printed in 1941 and the pages are covered with beautiful love poems from great poets of the time. It's classic. My favorite thing about the book and the real reason I couldn't part with it was that the previous owner had written her own poem in the back. It was obviously written with great intention for her Love and is more beautiful than any of the poems within the pages of the book. The poem was 2 pages long, but this is by far my favorite verse.

It is endearing to me that these letters/poems were written by real people in love. And people that were hundreds of miles from their loved ones with no email, web-cam, skype or cell phone. We are definitely blessed to have all the technology we have today to communicate; however, I say we bring back the old pen and paper!

With that being said, I am challenging myself this week to write a letter to someone (or many someones) and put it in the mail before the week is over.

Is there someone you need to thank...or, perhaps, someone you miss? Instead of writing them an email or sending a text, take 20 minutes to write them a letter (or a poem) and let them know how you feel. It will certainly brighten their day...or week!