I’ve written more than my fair share of love letters in my life. I appreciate that makes me sound more of a tart than I really am. My teenage years were hugely enriched yet hugely shadowed by the act of waiting for the postman.  Endless hours spent in my room crafting prose, expressing emotions, discussing impossible futures and dreaming dreams that were inevitably going to shatter and scatter like glass falling on stone.

But I’m not sure that matters in itself, because the process, the act of expressing emotion, expressing love, expressing adoration and hope…..well they were never lost moments, they were never without value. Even if at the time it might have felt just that way.

Fast forward 20 odd years and I sit here typing on a laptop.  The last time I wrote anything approaching a love letter was maybe 15 years hence. My son has just declared that he has his first girlfriend and the world which I reminisce about is long gone. Is he ever going to write a love letter and does it really matter whether he does?

Yes, I think it really does.  The world of communication has moved forward ten fold and that in itself is not a bad thing.  We can look and see whether our iPhone is vibrating or our Blackberry is flashing to see whether we have a text or  an email from our loved one.  But there remains something sacred, something amazing about receiving a love letter in the post that transcends the everyday run of the mill information exchange which we have become accustom to. The sensations of touch, smell and sight combined in a way that electronic communication can never provide.

Time moves on, society progresses and all for the right reasons.  But the basis of human psychology doesn’t. We all still want to be adored and want to tell someone we adore them.  Just we have  denigrated the way in which we do this.  From letter, to email, to text, to Facebook message. It isn’t just about the message, but how the message is delivered.

Maybe I’m yearning for times gone by, maybe I’m being whimsical and a dreamer.  But how would you feel today if you went to collect the post and in amongst the bills and the junk mail received a letter from your special one, telling you how much they loved you, how much you meant to them?  Would you adore that little bit more for going that “extra mile”? And if so would they not adore you for doing that too?

A stamp doesn’t cost much, the paper and pens are abundant.

The thought though? That takes some time.

Maybe just sometimes we need to take a little more thought, a little more time and a little less convenience to make someone we love feel a little more special.