Love For Our Elders

A friend of mine had a birthday a few days after Christmas, and she posted on her Facebook page, saying

“I have a request, beautiful people…Would you go do something special, kind, loving, or generous (or all of the above!) for someone today or someday soon?”

I wanted to do something special, so I thought long and hard about it. And then I googled ideas for random acts of kindness. By googling I discovered the perfect thing, and I want to share it with you in case you want to try it too.

Love For Our Elders is a group that creates gestures of love for senior citizens, who you already know are a group of people dear to my heart. Love For Our Elders has a program called Letters of Love, where they encourage people to write colorful, uplifting, and easy-to-read letters for elders who might feel lonely or need a bit of cheer.. Writing six of these letters only took me about an hour, and I can’t wait to send them along.

If you want a few examples of how to do the letters, they have some on their site, but I wanted to share a few of mine below. The art is by Guinevere von Sneeden. She did this artwork to accompany one of my “checklists” I do for every magazine issue, and she gave me permission to use the art as my personal stationery, as I’ve done ever since. The girl was inspired by myself, with my amanita mushroom beret I made, and of course I also love the fox peeking out among the ferns.

So please, if you have a cozy winter afternoon at home, “stuck” inside amidst a blanket of snow (or ice, as is my case today), consider getting out your stickers and paper, markers and creativity, and writing a short little letter or two or three that could brighten the day of someone who needs it.