What to write when you don't know what to write
Blank card, blinking cursor of the analog world. Here's the two-line formula that works for anyone you love.
The card came in the mail. You sat down. You picked up the pen. And now you are staring at a blank white rectangle and your brain is offering you nothing but *"hope you have a great one!"*
Here's a formula that works, every time, for anyone you love. It's two lines.
Line one: name a specific thing
Not "you're amazing." Not "hope this year is your best yet." A **specific thing** you thought of when you thought about them.
- *"I still laugh about that time we got lost in Denver."* - *"Your french toast is genuinely the reason I visit."* - *"You called me back the day dad went in the hospital and I've never forgotten it."*
Specific beats sweeping. Specific is proof you actually see them.
Line two: name what you wish for them
Not generically. What do *they* want this year? Say that.
- *"Hoping this is the year the garden finally cooperates."* - *"Wishing you a slow morning and a full coffee cup on your actual birthday."* - *"Rooting for you and the new job with everything I've got."*
Sign off like a person
Skip "sincerely." Skip "yours truly." Sign off the way you would end a phone call with them. *"Love you, mean it."* *"Miss your face."* *"XO — call me."*
That's it. Two lines and a sign-off. It reads in ten seconds and it gets kept for ten years.
Bonus: the "P.S." trick
A P.S. always gets read. If there's something small and warm — a photo you love, a memory you almost forgot, a thing you're proud of them for — put it in the P.S. It'll be the sentence they remember.