Arts Blog by Sabra Comins

October 2026 – Sealed Connections

A hungry monster perches above my mailbox. 

Our blue knobby-skinned monster showed up on the porch one day. Needing a roost, I wedged him between the mailbox and house in a way that allowed him to wiggle his skinny arms with the right breeze or bump. With one eye bulging out, he eagerly watches for personal mail, his sustenance of choice. 

When I check my mailbox for the third time in a day, I realize I must be hungry too. My mailbox monster is shrouded in cobwebs, and I chuckle at myself for expecting mail when I have not been posting it. 

I write letters to feel connected to others in our increasingly disconnected world. I write to people as well as objects, places, or impossible addressees like my 8-year-old self. While I don’t expect a response from a wooly bear or my grandpa’s cabin, I still feel a forged connection with a recipient through the act of writing.

Authors use the epistolary form in novels and creative non-fiction to get at difficult truths. I, too, often feel I am divulging a secret when writing a letter. It is a tender moment of balancing what I want to share of my life with what a correspondent might like to read. A letter is the product of this vulnerability and an invitation to connect. 

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Akin to my mailbox monster being replenished by the sight of hand-addressed envelopes, I must include my hope of a reply as one of the joys of sending mail. I love imagining a recipient’s delight upon receiving a letter. Like a choreographed dance of a shared experience stretched in time, we both hold the envelope and its contents, though one writes and seals while the other opens and reads.

It feels magical to put a letter out for pick-up and then have it appear at a friend’s house a week later. How many hands touch an envelope in transit? When a note arrives from my aunt, it appears that she and my mail carrier are the only two who’ve moved it, yet it’s traveled across the country via a system of humans, machines, and transportation. When I reply, does my decorated envelope give people pause along the way? 

Harriet Russell, a UK illustrator, challenged the Royal Post and the United States Postal Service by addressing envelopes to herself in code. She employed old and drawn maps, dot-to-dot pictures, crossword puzzles, the Periodic Table, and other inventive strategies to convey her address. Her book, Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through the Royal Mail, is a collection of these envelopes and inspiration for creatively bending the rules.

I enjoy the freedom of penning high-reaching lines and curves in often overlapping letters, the acceptance of crossed-out words and grammatical errors, and the ability to complete my thoughts and sentences without being interrupted. Using salvaged stationery like scratch paper from making eco-prints, the inside of an opened envelope, or crumpled paper received in packages adds to my satisfaction.

Inspirited by my mailbox monster’s appetite, I am getting out my address book and postage stamps. If you are or would like to be a letter writer, here are a few ways to help get your pen moving.

Oregon Humanities has an anonymous letter exchange program called Dear Stranger. Intended to connect people across the state, they ask participants to write about a current topic in their quarterly publication, then they swap letters with individuals from different regions. The Valley Library at OSU has the materials needed to participate including a collection drop box.

Portland’s Egg Press and Hello! Lucky have a 30-day challenge during April (National Letter Writing Month) to write 30 letters in 30 days. Their Write_On campaign started in 2014 to simply send out more letters, but they found that “connecting through letters was central to our wellbeing”. Their resources include writing tips, reasons to write letters, and ways to write to those in need.

To ease back into letter writing, I am taking The Sunday Letter Project pledge to write one letter per week. This UK project started in 2025 after owners of a stationery shop noticed customers missed receiving letters. Over 18,000 people have taken their pledge!

Lastly, I invite you to send mail to me at TAC and reach out if you’d like to write letters in community. I welcome the opportunity to build new connections; it’s what our world needs. 

Happy letter writing!

Sabra

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