Postcard feature: Goji

Obviously, there wouldn't be a Lost Postcard Project blog without the postcards.

Well, okay, there would. There are actually quite a few Lost Postcards blogs, and we recognize that while we might have been the first Project (given that we created and hid our first postcards in Iona, Idaho in 2006), we are slow bringing it to the Blogworld. So let me start out by apologizing for being, in part, redundant. For the record, I tried to get the girl to agree to change the project's name to something more unique and maybe also more precise. Because the postcards aren't exactly lost, are they?

I suggested Misplaced Postcards, Forgotten Postcards, Unexpected Postcards (my personal favorite), Surprise Postcards--all kinds of postcards. But she wouldn't have it. She was, after all, six years old when she drew and hid her first postcard. She will be sixteen early next year, which means Lost Postcards represent nearly two-thirds of her life. She has a limited store of memories from the years before Lost Postcards. And in all that time, that significant segment of her existence on this earth, the Postcard Project has been Lost.

So, Lost it remains. And honestly, quite a few of the postcards really are lost now. Not all of them come back. We were especially unsuccessful with that first adventure, and it sort of hurts to think of all her sweet little first-grader artwork out there somewhere.

But our return rate has improved a lot since then. We have a little store of returned postcards. She has hers in a little bag in her room. I keep mine...well, in a considerably less organized fashion. But I keep them.

And if you're reading this, you probably want to see them. Well, maybe you don't care. But we want to show them to you, and it's our blog, so you're just going to have to deal with it.

We should have featured the first one we ever got back, of course, but we can't remember which one it was. So instead, we're going to start off with one that was a favorite of both of us when we hid it, and came back to us with about the best note ever. The finder was kind enough to give my elephant both a name, and an adventure.This is Goji, hidden in the Denver Public Library in July 2015, and returned to us postmarked New Jersey (New Jersey!) in August.

The front of the postcard, taken before we visited the Denver Library.

The postcard as it was returned to us.

What a wonderful return! Here's the fun story the postcard came back with, in a handwriting full of character (I'm a calligrapher, too; I notice these things):

Goji the elephant had forgotten the way home, which is odd, since elephants never forget. 

While wandering with a friend through the plains, a great storm arose suddenly, and he became separated from his friend. He was alone. He cried for hours and days, until a soft voice called to him. Clearing his wet eyes, he saw a brilliant phoenix smiling kindly at him. A voice calmed him, "Do not cry, my dear. Never are you totally lost. My name is Keegan. Pleased to meet you. Your big ears are so beautiful!"  

Goji blushed and thanked Keegan. "My name is Goji, and I want to go home! I miss my friends."

"We'll get you there," the phoenix responded with care as she carried him in her claws, flying away. "You made it all the way to Cape May, NJ while lost!"

Thank you, Keegan, for returning our elephant, and for giving us such an adventure!

--mejaka and Anna