Rehashing the past with this one as I dust off this forgotten post from the archives (July 2013 actually).. and talk about the ‘un’letters.

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The ‘Un’letters

Note: This post, as I mentioned earlier, was first written in July 2013. Since then, life has taken many twists and turns, and I realize that I am yet to learn some lessons. Most of the post is as is from the original version, and I have reformatted it a bit. For some of it, where time has brought impactful change upon us, I have rewritten / overwritten those parts. You will see that as you read.

The Many Types of ‘Un’letters

‘Un’letters: I have so many of them. There are the ‘Un’written ones – all those I planned to write but never got around to. Then there are the ‘Un’finished ones. The ones I somehow did start but then did not finish and now the news in them are stale news.

I also have the ‘Un’sent letters. You know, the ones I managed to finish writing but did not actually send for some reason or the other. And I should not forget the other ‘Un’s – the ‘un’thought of yet, ‘un’ well anything else you can think of.

I really do have letters of each type! And for some reason, I do not feel like throwing away the ‘un’finished and ‘un’sent ones. So I save them along with the  ones I receive from loved ones which I have treasured all these years. 

‘Un’letters to My Children

The ‘un’written ones are the ones I most regret but I hope to catch up sometime. I read an article when I was a new mom myself to my then new-born son (now 10 21 years old). This mom of many years wrote about the letters she penned to her child(ren) on their birthdays each year. But she put those letters away. For she planned to give them all to each child at a momentous occasion later in life.

Each letter contained highlights of the child’s year, advice mom wanted to pass on to her child, what her child(ren) had achieved/talked about, and her own dreams and goals for her child(ren) at that time. Well, my son is 10 21 and my little not-so-little-anymore girl is 7 18, so I can cannot still play at catch up though since my memory is not that great:).

When I do write these letters, I will definitely be writing a post about that here. While I cannot catch up and write a letter for each of the years gone past, I do plan to write something for them this year (2024, I mean). I did surprise both of them (my son three years ago now, and my daughter this year at home after her high school graduation) with the ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go‘ graduation book gift.

Note: check out the How to guide for this gift idea in tomorrow’s post

The ‘Un’letters to Others

Then there are the letters I had planned to have my little ones write regularly to loved ones in India. The joy of receiving a letter in the mail written by someone you care about is just wonderful! No matter how often you talk to them over the phone or video-chat or text, that letter makes it so personal.

And I am realizing time waits for no one. The kids have already lost one three beloved grandparents in their paternal grandfather last year since I first wrote this post, including my mom last year.

Now, I think I should work on this goal myself as well as work with my kids too. While we did not really actively write many physical letters (since this post was first written), we did do other things that were close.

Ummm… Letters!

The old fashioned letter will never go out of style! I love writing letters and while I try to still write little notes to my family and friends, I admit I have not written letters for a while now. And this is a reminder to myself to write letters more often.

(this above section was for the then weekly Thursday meme called Theme Thursday and that week’s theme was: Letters)

Related Reads and More

• The Art of Letter Writing: Dear Reader, With Love
• Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster  (Epistolary Fiction for )  
• How to Write a Letter to the Elderly and Why
• Find Inspiration this World Letter Writing Day: In Wondrous Books and More
• A Love Letter to Wondrous Words and the Letters Within
• Love Letters Found in Books: A Literary Treasure Trove
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Epistolary Fiction)  
• With Love, A Letter to My Daughter

And Now, the End of This ‘Un’letters Post

Dear reader, first question – do you have any ‘Un’letters? Any tips and recommendations to get those ‘un’letters become letters? Your favorite letter-writing tip and/or book about letters? Who did you write your last letter to (and when)?