The season's happy mail

Is it always Christmas on Christmas Island?

Apart from the stamps glued on the envelope, pen pal Arlene puts other artistic touches on her envelope. I often wonder if the post office people who handle mail appreciate these.

The size of my crane Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Because I commute between two cities, snail or postal (but I now prefer to describe it "happy") mail is doubly delayed. I get to open them many days, stretching to weeks, after I arrive in Pasig or Baguio. But it is with a child's delight that I open them--it's almost like holding the sender by her hand or having her seated across you as you chat inside a cafe, warming your hands around your respective coffee cups while the rain pours outside.

I reached Pasig last night with four envelopes awaiting me. Except for one postmarked Quezon City, each came from a great distance: Tokyo, New South Wales in Australia and Chicago.

My friend Arlene, a Pinay artist who has made Japan her home, even enclosed what she called a "sushi crane" delicately folded from a piece of glossy magazine page with the color picture of a platter of, yes, sushi. Like Australia-based pen pal Giselle, the card she chose has proceeds going to a worthwhile cause: Medecins de Monde, an international NGO.

Keep the mail alive. Keep their senders and recipients happy.

Purchase of this card helps the Salvation Army in "fighting poverty, social and spiritual distress in Australia and New Zealand for almost 130 years." The army provides needy Australians 100,000 meals in a week, refuge to 500 abuse victims, among others. Peace, joy, hope for all, indeed!

The beneficiary for this card is The Hadley School for the Blind in Winnetka, Illinois.

The season's wishes are also rendered in Braille. Thanks, Cousin Tess and family!

Dr. Beth Quirino-Lahoz's card that changes yearly features a photo from her collection of doors and windows. Photo shows the door of a cathedral in Avila, Spain. Beth heads the Technological Institute of the Philippines in Quezon City and Manila. TIP is committed to teaching knowledge and truth and learning values.