For most of our young lives, connection with beloved friends and family required intention.

It took time and thought.

It took effort.

Long-distance phone calls were expensive.

Seeing the people we loved happened in-person. The echo of “wriiiiiiiite meeeeeee!!! I’ll wriiiiiiiiiiite yooooouuuuu!!!” lingers somewhere still in the lanes leading out of summer camps and the driveways of friends and favorite cousins. We meant it. And of course, we wrote.

As much as we have tried, we can’t quite come up with anything in our lives today that comes close to the feeling of sending and receiving letters.

There was something magical about the energy of the paper, the handwriting, the doodles, the random scraps of someone else’s world that they curated just for YOU. Letters from friends and cherished family were an intimate, heartfelt connection that cannot be replicated in any other way.  And honestly, why should it?

The great paradox of our easy, instantaneous, world-at-our-fingertips communication is that authentic connection is scarce. Screens don’t have soul, tactile energy or the anticipation of longing.

Which means to say they lack…kinship.

And it’s not just people we are losing connection with, it’s with the joy and beauty all around us, too.  We are losing the powerful skill of noticing.

Any Gen-Xer would tell you that when we were growing up, unless we were walking on shifty terrain, we were never looking down. We lived eyes forward, connected to our world by being present. We people-watched.  We watched critters and birds.  We daydreamed with the clouds and the stars. We shared our ideas with the people next to us. We felt each other’s emotions. We felt the world around us.

This joyful noticing and connection is what we hope to share through The Kinfolk Post. A little piece of something that helps us remember who we are, together.

Why “Kinfolk?” 

We have roots in hills and hollers, with families who didn’t know a stranger.

Kinfolk are the family you were born to,

the family that you choose,

and the people you share values and experiences with.