HEARTSPOKEN: Handwritten Notes, Letters, and the Art of Connection

Episode description

At 61.3 square feet, the Ochopee Post Office in the Florida Everglades is the smallest in the United States. When a National Geographic clipping about it arrived in Elizabeth’s mailbox from her daughter, it opened a story about postcards, patience, and the extra effort that turns an ordinary message into treasure. This week, Elizabeth shares what postmaster Don Walters loves most about his tiny shed—and an invitation to send something small and deliberate to someone who would be delighted to find your handwriting in their mailbox.

In this episode

·      How a tomato farmer’s storage shed became a post office after a 1953 fire

·      The travelers on the Tamiami Trail who stop to write postcards using the side of the shed as a desk

·      Why postmaster Don Walters says of those postcard-writers, “I could do this for the rest of my life”

·      What a torn-out magazine page and a sticky note reveal about the value of doing it the slow way

·      This week’s invitation: pick one person, find a stamp, and send something on its way

Read it

https://heartspoken.substack.com/p/smallest-post-office-connection

Mentioned in this episode

·      “Wonders of America,” National Geographic (includes Michael Adno’s “Smallest Post Office,” July 2026)https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/wonders-america-250-united-states

More from Elizabeth

·      The HEARTSPOKEN Note—weekly letters on Substack, where every episode of this podcast beginshttps://heartspoken.substack.com/

·      The HEARTSPOKEN Connection—her monthly LinkedIn newsletter on how business and nonprofit professionals use handwritten notes to build relationships that matterhttps://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-heartspoken-connection-7060735420233355264/

·      Heartspoken.com—years of writing on the four essential connections of a Heartspoken lifehttps://heartspoken.com/

·      The Art of the Heartspoken Note—a private Facebook community for note and letter writershttps://facebook.com/groups/heartspokennotes

·      Get in touch with Elizabethhttps://heartspoken.com/contact

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth H. Cottrell is the author of HEARTSPOKEN: How to Write Notes That Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire and the founder of the Heartspoken Movement. She writes from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Welcome to this episode of HEARTSPOKEN: Handwritten Notes, Letters, and the Art of Connection! I'm bringing you my yearly guide to holiday cards. It covers five things you can do this month so card-writing feels like a joy when the holidays arrive.

In this episode:

·      Why you can let go of the December deadline

·      Giving yourself time to write a personal note in every card

·      Gathering your supplies, including this year's U.S. Postal Service holiday stamps

·      Updating your address list while there's still time to find missing addresses

·      Setting up your own note-writing station

Also in this episode: this week's note-writing calendar (World Animal Day, World Teachers' Day, Random Acts of Poetry Day, and World Post Day), notes from Bel Esprit Letter on the French New Year card tradition and from Zip's Mailbox Club on dog-written notes to grandchildren, and a preview of next week's visit to the smallest post office in the United States.  

Read it here: https://heartspoken.substack.com/p/get-ready-holiday-cards

Resources mentioned:

·      Free "Get Ready for Holiday Card & Note Writing" checklist: [link] https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/271906/200344124207924767/share

·      October Calendar for Note & Letter Writers: [link] https://heartspoken.substack.com/i/216818088/week-of-october-4

·      HEARTSPOKEN: How to Write Notes That Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire: [link] https://heartspoken.com/heartspoken-book

·      Professional Circle membership (includes a digital copy of the book): [link] https://heartspoken.substack.com/i/183649244/the-professional-circle-90year

·      Bel Esprit Letter: [link] https://substack.com/@maisonbelesprit| Zip's Mailbox Club: [link] https://substack.com/@zipsmailboxclub | Lydia Ramsey https://substack.com/@lydiaramsey

Every night of his presidency, Barack Obama read ten letters from ordinary Americans—an estimated 20,000 to 23,000 over eight years. In this episode, Elizabeth readers her book review of To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope by Jeanne Marie Laskas, the story of those letters, the people who wrote them, and the White House staff who read every one. Along the way, she draws out what any note writer can learn about the power of a personal letter.In this episode:

• Why Obama read ten letters a day, and how it kept him connected to the people he served

• Inside the Office of Presidential Correspondence, where staff and volunteers handled about ten thousand letters and messages a day

• The "10LADs" and the "Red Dot" letters

• How letters shaped speeches, priorities, and even legislation

• Three lessons for note writers: answer the letters you receive, make it specific and personal, and remember that one letter can ripple outward

Read the full review: https://heartspoken.com/book-review-to-obama/

Find the book:

Heartspoken Bookshop (supports independent bookstores): https://bookshop.org/a/11265/9780525509400

Amazon, including Kindle: https://link.amazon/B0bS1dIeL

These are affiliate links. You pay no more, and the small fee I earn supports my work.

Want to write to the president? Mail a letter to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, or use the contact form at whitehouse.gov.

Learn more about writing notes that connect in my book, HEARTSPOKEN: How to Write Notes That Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire: https://heartspoken.com/heartspoken-book

Get in touch: https://heartspoken.com/contact

Welcome to the very first episode of HEARTSPOKEN: Handwritten Notes, Letters, and the Art of Connection! I'm starting with my yearly guide to holiday cards. It covers five things you can do this month so card-writing feels like a joy when the holidays arrive.

In this episode:

• Why you can let go of the December deadline

• Giving yourself time to write a personal note in every card

• Gathering your supplies, including this year's U.S. Postal Service holiday stamps

• Updating your address list while there's still time to find missing addresses

• Setting up your own note-writing station

Also in this episode: this week's note-writing calendar (World Animal Day, World Teachers' Day, Random Acts of Poetry Day, and World Post Day), notes from Bel Esprit Letter on the French New Year card tradition and from Zip's Mailbox Club on dog-written notes to grandchildren, and a preview of next week's visit to the smallest post office in the United States.  

Resources mentioned:

• Free "Get Ready for Holiday Card & Note Writing" checklist

• October Calendar for Note & Letter Writers, this week

• Elizabeth's book: HEARTSPOKEN: How to Write Notes That Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire

• Professional Circle membership (includes a digital copy of the book)

• Bel Esprit Letter

• Zip's Mailbox Club

• Lydia Ramsey

________________________

Read the full letter HERE: https://heartspoken.substack.com/p/get-ready-holiday-cards

______________________

Follow HEARTSPOKEN so you don't miss an episode, or subscribe to "The Heartspoken Note" to get each one in your inbox: Here's the full link: https://heartspoken.substack.com/

Other ways to connect: https://heartspoken.com/contact

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Whether written or spoken, words from the heart will never fail you!

Welcome to HEARTSPOKEN. I'm Elizabeth Cottrell—author of HEARTSPOKEN—and each week I read you one of my own short letters about handwritten notes, letters, and the art of connection. Press play to hear what the show is about, then follow so each new letter finds you.

More in the Heartspoken world:

* Read these letters on my free Substack newsletter “The HEARTSPOKEN Note”: https://heartspoken.substack.com

* My HEARTSPOKEN blog: https://www.heartspoken.com

Always remember: Whether written or spoken, words from the heart will never fail you.