Your relationship with friends and family is the most important thing in your life. As long as there are no problems communication is simple. But what happens when a friend or family member moves away, or you have a falling-out with a loved one. In most cases trying to keep strained or long-distance relationships alive can be difficult and hair-raising. You may send an email or a text that you believe is heartfelt and sincere, but others may see your words as callous and offensive.
Most of us don’t have much practice in writing letters from the heart. It makes many of us feel uneasy when trying to translate what we are truly feeling into the right words. We are accustomed to quick phone calls, text messages, emails, or social media platforms for our main focus of communication. Can you think of the last time you sat down and wrote a personal letter to someone? My guess is the times are seldom to none.
When it comes to expanding to personal and sincere matters we are at a loss. We are often at a loss when trying to tell someone how much we care about them. Or how much we adore them, miss them, think about them. We become squeamish about writing sentences that tell others how we truly feel because we rarely speak about how we truly feel. We are afraid our words may appear shallow or cliched. But it is a basic human need to reach out to those we care about. To tell them that they are missed, or how sorry we are for something we should have done or something we shouldn't have done.
In these matters, we often find ourselves out of our comfort zone. We don’t take the time to do these things any longer. We don’t engage with others for extended periods of time by use of letters. But a good letter can help buildup and mend a relationship like no other form of communication. A personal letter if written well can be quite moving and intimate. It is something that can enhance the power and meaning of a relationship between two or more parties.
Like many things, the craft of letter writing is becoming a lost art. You have to take responsibility for the things that you say when writing down words because they are tangible things that do not go away and cannot be denied. You can deny something you just said, but not something you just wrote. Writing a personal letter is completely different than writing something for ourselves or our own amusement. There is a specific reader in mind. The right tone and structure must be weighed carefully in each and every word to lead the reader to a true understanding of their proper roper meaning.
A letter can be misconstrued, by its tone more so than when we speak. When we speak we can make immediate corrections, but not when we write. Written correspondence has a huge impact on people. Letters are things that play with people's feelings and emotions and expectations, so we have to be careful of their authenticity and structure. Grammar, style, and structure have to be used to properly and effectively, not only draw the reader in but to allow an opportunity to view and understand the true meaning of what you are trying to say. Every word counts and we cannot assume our letter is perfectly clear and to the point unless it is properly honed to serve that purpose. We cannot assume the person reading it will interpret it the right way without prejudice. Be authentic, be real. And above all, when communicating, stand out from the crowd.
Commentaires