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Today I’m talking about Postcrossing, which I finally tried out late last year.

Basically, you sign up to send and receive postcards from others. 📮

I believe the default option is a “global” setting, which you can switch to a “local” setting if you’d like to save on postage.

I’d heard about it a few times, and after my autumn road trip ended, I still wanted some kind of travel‑adjacent activity to try through the winter months (which, in Maine, can be about 5.5 months on average).

The way it works is simple: you sign up, and the system randomly assigns you someone to send a postcard to.

And your name gets randomly assigned to other members as well.

If you send two postcards, two people will eventually send one to you, and so on.

My first two outgoing postcards went to Italy and Germany. 🇮🇹🇩🇪

I had no idea where mine would be coming from.

So I was very pleasantly surprised when my first incoming postcard arrived from Jordan. 🇯🇴

It had a serene photo of Aqaba, and the sender wrote that it was “the only sea outlet in Jordan.”

It was a scenic and pleasant surprise.

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Side Note: This reminded me of my Middle Eastern Dragons post on Dragonsinn, which I wrote pre-2009 and could do with an update or refresh by now. I have a newer Persian Dragon Art post.

I’d like to slowly expand those over time, alongside the other regional history/cultural art posts like Chinese, Japanese, North American Indigenous dragon lore, etc.

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A few weeks later, I received my second postcard from China. 🇨🇳

It was the first time I’d ever gotten mail from either of these countries, so it felt incredibly fun and expanded my world a little.

And of course, I have a thing for stamps.

The China postcard had a beautiful, painterly stamp that matched some of the Chinese stamps I already have in my collection.

Very artistic, very satisfying.

That’s today’s reflection: tiny pieces of the world arriving in the mailbox, and a winter hobby that turned out to be surprisingly joyful.