Send Yourself a Postcard

By Gail Hutchins

In the world of cell phones, text messages, email, and zoom-it’s gratifying to find a snail mail postcard in my mailbox. Receiving a postcard from someone with good wishes, sent from a part of the world never experienced, is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

I’m drawn to colorful postcards found in museum stores, book stores, gift shops, sidewalk newsstands, and on racks at the airport. I purchase postcards with intentions to connect with friends and family but find them tucked away in my desk draw. I can conjure up a list of excuses why I never got them off to the intended recipients; it was hard to understand the postal system in another country, I had no stamps, I got busy, I had no time to write a heartfelt note. They sometimes become good-looking postcard bookmarks. Happening upon them while digging in a draw, they are a lovely mini trip down memory lane.

Sending a postcard may not be as instantaneous as the other ways we communicate, but when a postcard arrives in the mail, it creates an immediate smile and always becomes a happy part of the day!

If you’re like me and you love shopping for postcards, collecting them and sending them, why not send them to yourself! The postcards will be a connection to the date, place, people, experiences, and emotions you felt while in that moment. Holding that card in your hand will transport you back to that happy place again. Once at home, that vacation mail basket will include pleasant postcard reminders of your vacation. Sending yourself postcards while traveling will extend your vacation glow when you return home.

So for the minimal cost of some postcards, you have given yourself a terrific souvenir that captures lasting memories and takes up no room in your luggage! Your collection of postcards preserves your story and, you and your family will share and cherish them throughout the years.

When I mail those postcards, it brings me immense joy. Life gets busy, but there is nothing more important than staying connected and making the important people in our lives happy. As I travel and send postcards to friends, family, and myself, I hope that the postcards inspire us to enrich our lives and widen our world by getting out there and traveling.