Letters come in Waves

It seems as though I’ve been on a bit of a letter- writing roll thus far in 2024. Through the first two months of the year I have written nearly ten letters. If that torrid pace continued for the entire year, I would pen approximately 55 letters.

That would be absolutely extraordinary for two reasons. First of all, I generally write 20 to 25 letters a year, so doubling that normal pace would be an extreme outlier. Secondly and more importantly, you would think that ten years into this incredibly enriching hobby, with some 235 letters out the door, I literally would be running out of people to express gratitude towards!

A quick perusal of letter recipients thus far in 2024  include a young woman to whom I feel very kindly disposed, a chef at an eatery that I frequent with regularity, a distant friend who tragically lost his adult daughter, a closer friend who recently underwent serious cardiac surgery, and the crackerjack videographer who created the dynamite video samples seen elsewhere on this website, among others recipients.

I harbor no illusion that I will be writing 55 Letters of Gratitude this year, or even 45, or even 35. Letters come in waves. Sometimes I write two in a week, and sometimes I don’t write a letter for a month or more. It just so happens that in the early days of 2024, there has been a spike in my writing, and reaching out. The fact is at some point my potential recipient list will, in fact dwindle. There are only so many people you can know, and feel beholden to!

Knowing myself as I do, and with a decade’s worth of a sample study behind me, this has simply been a phase. The “idea well“ has been full, but it will run dry, only to replenish itself a few weeks or a month or two down the road.