Opening the mailbox and still finding wonder

As I add another year of existence here on the third rock from the sun, I think of all that I’m grateful for as I open up the birthday cards sent to me via the U.S. Postal Service. It’s a lot more fun to open those cards and letters than it is to open the plethora of bills, bargains and bait and switch opportunities that generally fill my mailbox.

I appreciate all the good wishes sent to me via the internet, but there is something so special knowing that someone took the time to pick out a card — appropriate to my sense of humor — and took the time to write on it, stamp it and send it on it’s way.

My sister is very good about sending cards throughout the year, far more than I send her in return. Clearly, I’m the bad sister.

My cousin sent me a birthday card, and for the first time since I moved back home 15 years ago she used my correct street address instead of the post office box we used to have about 35 years ago. Old habits die hard, and in a small town, you have the luxury of someone at the post office noticing the wrong address and putting the letter where it belongs.

Like most people, this will be a year I’m willing to forget. My challenges have not been as many or as bad as what others have had to endure, but they’ve been challenges nonetheless.

I’m grateful for the lessons of perseverance and embracing a positive attitude, but I do find myself wondering, when do the lessons stop? What is it about the human condition that is always in a state of learning?

I imagine that the ultimate lesson to learn is that, once you stop learning, you stop living. I don’t mean that in the final stop that comes to us all but in the broader sense where you lose your sense of wonder and all that makes you an interesting person. Sadly, that can come at any age. I know people younger than I am who could easily win “Most Boring Person” awards.

I wish they had the kind of family and friends that I do so they could find joy and happiness in the precious cards and letters that still come via the mail.

Miriam Nelson is the news editor of the Wittenberg Enterprise & Birnamwood News. Readers can contact her at mnelson@newmedia-wi.com

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