When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone ? Sadly, for me, it was a letter of complaint about service I had received.

Earlier this week I found myself clearing out a cupboard – yes such tasks are particularly attractive when you should be finishing a book. I discovered a pile of letters all over 20 years old now that I had received when I left the country of my birth to settle half way around the world.

Some I must admit were pedestrian, some too brief as if the letter was a chore but some revealed beautiful moments in time captured forever. A friend wrote of a disturbing break up with a boyfriend, followed by a new romance almost destroyed by the return of the ex. It captured a moment when she realised who she loved and why. I see her face on facebook everyday surrounded by the beautiful family he created with the right man and I feel privileged to have a letter that captured, like a time capsule, the creation of ever lasting love.

Another talks of an infant child and his personality and I love the fact that I now know that child as an adult. Yet another talks of a chance meeting with someone from their past – who 15 years later now shares her life. Captured co-incidence ?

Lost friends, skillfully crafted poetry, the stupidity of youth all captured in a pile of paper and ink.

Is the art of letter writing lost ? I think not. The brevity of facebook and texting has created a different language – different but not wrong. The problem is we can’t unexpectedly find our facebook posts in a cupboard 20 years later.

Blogging however allows us to write that annonymous letter to unspecified recipients and keep the art of letter writing alive. Start a blog today for no other reason than to create a capsule of memories.