jamie pate: One Reason Cards Are Important

One Reason Cards Are Important | National Card Month | JamiePate.com

the slow down

There is always in the back of my mind this want of slowing down. But for sure, that want can be so very illusive. Can you relate? It can be a difficult endeavor to slow down. To be reflective. Seemingly these are situations that require much effort to make happen.

Has it always been this way?

Allow me to digress for a moment. When the series Victoria was showing on Masterpiece Theatre, not only did I enjoy a peak into a more formal life, but I was always struck by the amount of correspondence that took place. I know, I know, it was a tv show. But still. I would like to believe that the slow of life, the time to write, the time to read, the walks in the garden was a true reflection of that time (or perhaps just the upper class). We know much of what we know from that time because of letter writing.

This is something that has been a common theme on this blog. While much of what I write about is storytelling, scrapbooking, documenting life, that in of itself IS also letter writing. It's journalling. It's telling the story, even if it is to you, so that you may record it in a memory album.

Isn't that fantastic? As I write this here and think about it, that is why so much of what I share overlaps. My shares here are scrapbook pages, mini albums, and cards. All paper craft foundations. All including a piece of our thoughts. All recorded for someone else to read at some other time.

All of those things require what? They require us to be mindful. To make something. To put pieces together. To what? To slow down.

Slowing down is just one of many important reasons for cards and the sending thereof.

Slowing down and making something with our hands enables us to a meditative form of thinking, even if just for a little bit. For me I know when I am crafting a card to give or send, my thoughts are pressed towards that person that I am making the card for. (Or the tag, or the scrapbook page.) This slowing down creates a margin of reflection and the time to really really think about a person.

Perhaps this is why I have done this sort of craft for so long. I keep coming back to the want of that slow down.

Card making and sending then brings the other person actually into the equation of it all. They then are the recipient of the making and the thoughts. They are gifted the time spent on the card and the thoughts rendered in the writing. Friends, this is such a beautiful and most important attribute of cards!

This weekend is a holiday weekend that is important to me and my faith. I have attempted to take the time in the busyness of this week to make some makes that I will be giving to others for the specific purpose of letting them know they are loved right here and now. And this is my encouragement to you to do the same. Take the time. Slow it down. And do the intentional work of creating a card for someone you love.

And, Happy Easter!

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