Hello Friends!

Since starting college, one of the things that I have found a little tricky is definitely keeping up with old friends.  Many of my close friends from high school have moved away and are not so easily “accessible”.  And those who still live in the area are busy as well.  We all have busy schedules and time conflicts, which makes finding time to talk pretty tricky.

The point is, however, that we all have a lot going on and it can be hard to just talk to people sometimes.  And we’ve ALL played phone tag a few to many times, amirite??  Sooo.

This little struggle reminded me of my experience this past Lent.  I had one of the best Lents ever this year due to one little thing:  Snail mail.  If you want to read more about my experience writing letters for 40 days, you can check out that post here.  The cliff notes version, though, is just that I wrote a letter of appreciation to someone I cared about each day of Lent.  It was easily one of the most beautiful things I’ve done as part of this season and would recommend it to anyone.

As I look back at that post and reread it now, it makes me smile, hearing about all the lessons I learned from it.  Realizing that I actually had 40 people to appreciate, realizing the strengths and talents of those around me, seeing how little it takes to bring joy to someone’s life.  This experience was so powerful for me and still makes me smile today.

But his kind of thing doesn’t just have to be isolated in a 40-day liturgical season.  We can do small things to make people smile every day of our lives.

Who doesn’t love snail mail, though.  It’s one of my personal favorites, and I constantly wish it weren’t so much of a dying art.  Especially when people are away from home and busy, receiving a sweet letter from a loved one or friend can be just the thing to brighten someone’s day and show them you really care.  Texts and messages just don’t have that authentic ability most of the time.

One of my favorite parts of letter writing is that it gives us the ability to say things that we might not usually say.  While writing letters this Lent, I would always start out by saying how thankful I am for that person.  Then I would just praise them for the good things I see in them.  Pick one or two things that I admire in them, that I aspire to.  Thinking about these beautiful men and women in my life and just seeing the good that they do was so powerful.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t often feel inclined to share this kind of encouragement via Instagram dm’s.

The point in all this is pretty simple.  We have the ability to spread joy and light to those around, even if they live thousands of miles away.  Maybe writing letters just one of many beautiful ways to spread that light.

But let’s be honest.  The only thing that can make a sweet letter better is some beautiful stationery.

When I first thought of the idea for this post and began looking for stationery to include, it was hard.  I really couldn’t find any shops that sold faith-based stationery and that made me so sad!  That is why I’m so very happy that I found Welcome Bee.  Welcome Bee is a beautiful Etsy shop that sells faith-based products.  Cora and her mom have been creating pieces for this shop since 2016 and provide so many amazing products.  These cards are so beautiful, focusing on quotes from the saints and scripture.  I’m seriously in love.

Due to the beautiful designs of this stationery, they could easily be repurposed as prints for your letter receiver.  These cards can truly live on as art in your friend’s home.  What a beautiful thought!!

It has been so nice to write letters with these beautiful cards and I look forward to writing many more in the future.  If you want to learn more about Welcome Bee’s beautiful cards, and any of their other products, check out their Etsy shop here.  Enjoy shopping!!  Also, keep your eyes open for a Welcome Bee Insta giveaway coming this week!  So exciting!!

Have a beautiful day!

Maddy