Words exchanged: A year long project of letters and postcards exchanged

LG called me out. "What is your year long project going to be?" I had totally forgot I mentioned I wanted to do a project; but it was the right timing, a new decade, about a year remained until I turned 30. Why not?

So I spent about a week thinking. What should I commit to? How much time a day did I have to contribute to this? Did I want to blog it? Blogging is such a funny thing. Its a little bit of ego mixed in with fun. But if I blogged it, I would be more likely to DO IT.

I asked around, yoga, meditation, meet a new person everyday... lots of ideas were offered up. Lots that I liked the idea of.

And then EH nailed it. What if I wrote a letter everyday, asking for people to write back. The idea evolved over the two hour drive through the mountains in CO. We wrote down over 100 words associated with the project, moved from asking for people to write me letters, to sending a postcard, a postcard with a single quote back. I love postcards, and I love quotes. Perfect-o. So that's it. I'm going to write a different letter everyday, and ask for the recipient to send me back a postcard with a quote. It doesn't have to be profound, just a quote the recipient likes. And I'll post them, take a picture of the postcard and the quote. In my letter I've included a quote at the bottom as well, and I'll post those as I send them out:

http://words-exchanged.com/

I've just written my fourth one, and it is tough! I'm not going to lie. Writing the letter and finding the quote, and looking up the address takes about 1/2 an hour. But thinking about how fun it is to get a written letter in the mail is exciting. Even more exciting: wondering about what types of quotes come back to me. What will my grandfather write?!

For me this project will be about looking back on the last decade and looking forward to my next decade beginning.

Reflection, exchange, laughter & smiles and in general being more thoughtful
about the present by keeping in touch.

Bring on 2010 and bring on the big 3-0! Check back to see.

If you read this blog, and I know you do, there is a 100% chance you'll get a letter. If you want to make sure you'll get one : xsquarednicky[at]gmail.com -- hook me up with your address.

xo