Unintentional Stamp Collecting

The other night, while cleaning off and reorganizing my "inspiration/bulletin/everything" board above my desk (as it has a tendency to become quite the catchall for most any little piece of paper), I realized I have a variety of stamps I've liked and tucked into places on my board in random fashion. Pulling them out and piling them up, I recalled why I'd kept these various stamps. I remember the "bird" stamp was one that Hub had given to me after work one day, shortly after we'd been married. He said he tore it off an envelope simply because it had a bird on it and he thought of me. Sweet memory. Then there are those I've kept simply for the neat design, like the "bee" and "love" ones. Or the recent "MN" stamp for our state. One from my cousin who lives in Israel...and a couple from my Japanese friend who sent a card from back home. Obviously these stamps are worth keeping since they come from foreign places.

Oh, and I'm often surprised to see what stamps come in the mail on envelopes from my mom & dad...being that my dad has quite a stamp collection of his own, it's not at all unusual for me to find tucked inside the envelope of a lovely handmade card from mum, a little note on a scrap of paper, written in my dad's scrawl saying, "save the stamps!"

A good reminder indeed.