Letters written once a year #101Dalmatians

101 Dalmatians

Shortly after Dalmatians were born, I started a beautiful tradition and I know many people with whom I share my opinion have embraced this tradition. I will tell you about this idea as well. In this way, I will share my story with you, and maybe you will like and adopt the same tradition.

Every year on my birthday, I write a letter to my daughter. In the letter, I talk about the pleasant events that happened to him that year, the difficulties, the events that affected both his and our lives, different events in the world, and my predictions about the future. I include photographs, gifts, report cards, and many things to be forgotten with years to my letter.

“I’m tired, and I’m hungry. And my tail’s froze. And my nose is froze. And my ears are froze. And my toes are froze.”

I have a folder in my desk drawer, and I collect materials that I want to add to it for Dalmatians’ next birthday. Each week I take notes about the events of that week to use in my next letter. As the birthday approaches, I pull out my folder and recall the thoughts, poems, cards, stories, and memories–many of which I’ve already forgotten–that I’ve collected over the past year, and start writing my letter from that year.

After I’m done writing the letter and putting everything necessary in the envelope, I have the envelope made. Now that year’s letter is ready. On each letter I write “Dear Dalmatians… the letter he wrote for his birthday and should be opened at the age of 1”.

When Dalmatians become a human adult these letters will be a kind of time capsule for him. These letters will be a kind of gift handed down from one generation to the next, a kind of record of life actually written while he was living.

It’s our tradition that on every birthday I show him his letter from that year, and then we go to the bank with him and put the letter in our safe at the bank with the other letters piling up. Sometimes he takes all the letters out of the safe and touches each one one by one. Sometimes he asks me questions about what is written in the letters, but I leave these questions unanswered.

In recent years, Dalmatians have started to give me things that have been very valuable to him since childhood, but that he did not use, but that he could not bear to throw away. Now she asks me to keep such things together with her annual letters.

This tradition has become my most sacred duty. As Dalmatians get older, I realize that this tradition has been a very important part of her life.