“Your notes were like a warm blanket around me,” she said to me. “Even though you couldn’t take away the pain or make the situation change, you were able to pull me to a happy place for a few minutes. You helped take my focus off the pain.”

Her heart was broken, and I felt helpless in the face of her suffering. What could I do? I wondered. How could I make her feel better?

Then I got an idea: fill her mailbox with notes and funny things to make her smile. A few days each week, I’d grab a pretty note card, scribble a note saying she was on my mind and in my prayers, enclose a cartoon or photo I thought she’d like, and mail it off.

“Sometimes,” she said, “just knowing that other people are thinking about you is comforting.”

Today, when we can communicate in so many paperless, effortless ways, why take the time to correspond the old-fashioned way?

Here’s why: The more convenient our communication has become, the more temporary it is. Although we can save an encouraging text or email, it’s not the same as holding a note or letter in our hands. In a way, the words in a letter are tangible, and if we keep it, we can reread it and be encouraged all over again.

When we open the mailbox and pull out a real envelope written with ink by a real person, it’s as if the envelope carries a sign, “I care. See inside.”

Although I am usually the one sending notes, just the other day, I got a note from a new friend. She encouraged me in specific ways, using descriptive words about my writing that gave me new insights. I have already reread it!

And that’s a good reminder to me to send out a few notes myself.

How about you? Is there someone you could encourage this week with a card or letter? You’ll be glad you did.

PS If you need some new notecards, check out the seasonal notecards in the Glimsen Shop. This is the perfect time of year to stock up on the Fall and even the Joy/Christmas designs, because the holidays will be here soon.

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