On learning how to love

I don't know where the idea started. I've been tossing it around in my head for a few days, testing it out. I feel as though I was inspired, in part, by a friend who writes love letters to strangers, and inspired, in part, by an awareness that our society not only neglegts, but encourages us to negate our 'feelings' in favour of logic and rationality. I have decided to undertake a project. I'm going to start writing love letters. More specifically, I want to use hand-written notes to start telling people how I feel about them.

I am going to write letters to people that I love, people that I have loved, people that I wanted to love, but never got to know. People who loved me. I'm going to write to my family members, my old teachers, my housemates, my friends. Letters to co-workers and bosses. Letters to gaels, and to OCs. Letters to people that I have known my entire life, and letters to people that I want to get to know more. Letters to say "thank you", to say "I love you", to say "I miss you", to say "you changed me". I'm going to write to the woman at Tim Hortons who lets me study there all night, and the security guard at the grocery store, who polices the parking lot.

By the end of this project, I want to have written 100 letters. I will probably write more. I will probably write to some people more than once (but I'll try not to count that).

I think about how many people have shaped me, and made me the person that I am. I feel as though I owe something to each one of them, and to myself, to say "I appreciate you". Or even - "I notice you" .... or "I understand you". Maybe the most important one of all - "thank you for understanding me". I think that there are moments between people that are so stunningly beautiful, and I want to find them. I can't wait to start