I saw an old woman as people filled the train. As I watched the poor woman, I thought about the letters my mother wrote and how a piece of paper turned into a love litter when a person put his self into it. I would write the woman one, I decided. I could drop it at her feet. I started writing but when I looked up, the woman was gone.
Back on the train, just a few days later, my plan became clear. I was going to leave the letter I wrote to the woman for someone else to find. Then I would put other love letters all over New York City. And you want to know why? Because it made me feel something.
In the following months, I started my own site, MoreLoveLetters. com, encouraging others to write and leave letters in their own communities.
About a year later, a woman wrote to me about her friend Briana, a single mother struggling (挣扎) to pay the bills (账单). I put Briana's story on the website, encouraging anyone who read it to mail me letters of encouragement for Briana.
A week later, I felt disappointed as I walked into the post office and opened PO Box 2061. It was nearly empty.
"Oh, Box 2061," said the man at the front of the post office. "You got too much mail, dear. We moved your mail to a bigger box.
I mailed the love letters to Briana, and a week later, I got a thank-you e-mail from Briana's friend. "Thanks for your love letters,"she wrote. ‘They show we're not alone and that we're not struggling for nothing. "
After such an amazing reply to Briana's story, I was encouraged to continue. I continued mailing letters to hundreds of people who didn't expect to get mail except bills that day.