I can’t really explain how much pleasure it gives me to go to My Post Office Box – P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, New York, 12816 and get holiday mail and messages from all over the country like the one I got today from Paula Bagby in Pleasant Hill, California. They come from everywhere, some are typed, some are hand-written, they are intensely personal, affirming and uplifting.

They remind me that the blog is important to people, it is read everywhere, it matters.

Some of the letters have cash neatly folded inside, some are checks for subscriptions, some are just thoughtful musings and greetings. One woman, Sandra from North Dakota, sent $10 so Maria and I could buy ourselves a cup of coffee at the Round House Cafe. It means so much to me – and Maria as well – to get messages like these anytime, but especially over the holidays, the idea of holidays has been difficult for both of us, and in a sense, many of you are family to us.

I love the tone and feeling of these P.O. Box messages, many are written at kitchen tables over coffee in the morning. I sit at my table in the morning and read them in the same way.
“Hi, Jon,” wrote Paula from California, “Thank you for posting the Cathedral of the Woods picture. Beautiful! Awesome!. I needed it. Thank you.” Enclosed was a neatly folded $10 bill in appreciation, and Paula sent her blog url for yesitsafarm.blogspot.com.

A sweet and simple and personal farm blog. Thank you Paula, for many things. For being so good and thoughtful, for sending me money you didn’t have to send, for loving my photographs and my blog. It takes no time at all to send a nasty Facebook message, it takes time to get stationary and stamps, write a letter and send it.

That make sit all the meaningful to me. You don’t need to send money when you write me at P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. But I love to go to the Post Office and check the mail in my P.O. Box. So many different voices, so many wonderful notes from everywhere. So much affirmation, the letters remind me that all of the work I do is worthwhile, it matters.

Happy Thanksgiving to Paula, and to all of the good-hearted people who have written and will write to me, especially over the holidays. I will be checking on my P.O. Box, every day..