40 days of lent

the past several years, i've decided to observe lent, though i am not catholic. i am, though, a rather introspective and goal-oriented person, and the idea of sacrificing something for a period of time with an eye toward self-improvement is always appealing to me. so, i do lent. this year i decided i was going to give up soda, since, while i don't think i'm really "addicted" to dr. pepper, per se, i was craving it way too often.

but that didn't really feel like enough, since it wasn't like i was drinking 50oz. of pop a day. someone--it might have been meredith--suggested that i start doing something during lent that i don't normally do. i really like this idea, of adding something to my life, replacing a negative behavior with a more positive one. so, since i love writing notes to people, i set a goal to write 40 notes/letters during the 40 days of lent.

i started out really well, on pace to reach this goal. as the weeks went on though, i decided that a more realistic target was 25 notes in 40 days. it wasn't that i wasn't thinking about the goal and just let it slip away from me--i was thinking about who i could write to pretty constantly. but, you know, postage is expensive.

but it was still pretty great. i sent 13 notes through the mail, 6 were hand-delivered, 4 were substantial and meaningful facebook messages, and 2 were emails. i became obsessed with stationery during these five weeks and bought way too much of it as a result (but that just means i need to write more notes!! it's a beautiful circle!). with some of these little notes i sent out into the world, i never heard anything from the recipient, so hopefully they all got to the right place. why is it so hard to get people's addresses? mail used to be it, the only way to get information--now it's like a person's residence is a closely-guarded secret or something (obviously, good idea if you want protection from killers and stuff, but bad idea if you want to receive thoughtful mail from a friend.)

anyway, i'm excited to keep going. i love writing notes, as i've expressed before, because it's sooooooooooo much easier to say what i want to say with the written word. and it's something you can keep forever. so if you want a note from me, let me know :) i have plenty of cute things to send you!