Valentine's Ideas
Love Letters: Gifts from the Heart!

source: Susan E. Foley (valentine.com)

Some people insist that the best gifts are gifts from the heart. No gift could be more personal than a love letter, and the best part is that it is a gift that can be opened and enjoyed again and again. Perhaps the ultimate total gift would be something special purchased to accompany such a love letter.

Make your letter special by starting with beautiful stationery. Write a rough draft so that you can copy it without errors. Roll it up and tie it in a ribbon in your Valentine's favorite color, which is very possibly NOT red! Present it with one perfect flower or a delicious piece of chocolate. Present it in such a way as to make it the most special gift ever received by him or her.

If you draw a blank when you take your pen to paper, go to the library or the internet for some inspiration. Love letters have been written throughout history and treasured throughout time. Celebrated lovers would not mind helping the less famous with an inspired missive in the name of love!

Two of the most famous lovers wrote letters to stay close when they were separated by distance and world events. Napoleon wrote to Josephine, "To citizen Bonaparte, I have not spent a day without loving you; I have not spent a night without embracing you; I have not so much as drunk a single cup of tea without cursing the pride and ambition which force me to remain separated from the moving spirit of my life."

Letters were also used by secret lovers to nurture their passion. The love between the great eastern mystic and poet Kahlil Gibran and an American schoolmistress was unveiled with the discovery of hundreds of letters they wrote to each other over their twenty-seven year relationship. "Beloved Mary, I kiss your hand, dear Mary, and in kissing your hand I bless myself."

Words on paper can tell a new love what you cannot say in person. Mark Twain put aside his wit and sarcasm to court his future wife. "My dearest Livy, You are so good and beautiful… Give me a little room in that great heart of yours… and if I fail to deserve it may I remain forever the homeless vagabond I am!" His words won him a bride and a love that lasted a lifetime.

Your letter can express passion, frustration, insecurities and struggles. Even humor is allowed in love letters. After all, humor can lessen any heavy load. In seducing his third wife, John Steinbeck wrote, "I will be glad to have you give up that tinsel life of debauchery and sin and come out to G-d's country where we got purple sage. P.S. Can you bring a little sin and debauchery along? You can get too much purple sage but you can only get just enough sin."

Love doesn't need to be fresh or new to deserve a letter. The love of President Harry Truman for his "Dear Bess" is documented in their rich and abundant correspondence over fifty years. Even in the era of the telephone and the telegraph the two preferred their sentiment on paper.

Put down the telephone. Turn off the television and the computer. Take out your pen and a fresh, clean sheet of paper. Think hard and tell your true love him much you care. Your letter may someday be a part of history!