how to write a love letter
Legendary photographer Dorothea Cunningham once said, "one should really use a camera as if tomorrow you'd be stricken blind". And that's how you should write a love letter: as if you'll never see that person again. As if tomorrow, they board a rocketship for a mission to Mars - they'll be gone for a long, long time. Maybe forever. And the letter you write will remind them of the best parts of your life together and what is waiting when they return.
The perfect love letter makes the reader miss the writer, even if they are sitting next to each other.
It was easier in third grade, wasn't it? You liked someone, and you offered to split a chocolate cookie at lunchtime. Or maybe you went the other way: you found a way to be a bit of a jerk. Maybe you pulled her hair. Or maybe you shoved him during recess. Fast forward a few years. Middle school and the first flush of hormones and passing notes in class. The always classic and effective, Do You Like Me? Check one: Yes / No / Maybe. And now we text. Or maybe post a sweet photo, with a lovely caption underneath on the social media app of choice: Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat/Periscope/Youtube.
A post is fine, but a love letter is better.
Some love letter inspiration:
Beethoven's Famous Immortal Beloved:
Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm — love me — today — yesterday — what tearful longings for you — you — you — my life — my all — farewell. Oh continue to love me — never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.
Jimmi Hendrix:
little girl...Happiness is within you…. So unlock the chains from your heart and let yourself grow like the sweet flower you are…I know the answer — Just spread your wings and set yourself FREE.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Ah, how good it was to hear your voice. It was so inadequate to try and tell you waht it meant. Funny was that I couldn't say je t'aime and je t'adore as I longed to do, but always remember that I am saying it, that I go to sleep thinking of you.
John Keats:
My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorbed me. I have a sensation a the present moment as though I was dissolving - I should be exquisetly miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you. I would be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My Creed is Love and you are its only tenent - You have ravished me away by a POWER I cannot resist.
Abigail Adams:
Should I draw you the picture of my Heart, it would be what I hope you would Love; tho it contained nothing new; the early possession you obtained there; and the absolute power you have ever maintained over it; leaves not the smallest space unoccupied. I look back to the early days of our acquaintance; and Friendship, as to the days of Love and Innocence; and with an indescribable pleasure I have seen near a score of years roll over our Heads, with an affection heightened and improved by time — nor have the dreary years of absence in the smallest degree effaced from my mind the Image of the dear untitled man to whom I gave my Heart.