Losing the Groove & Carving Withdraw

I've lost my letterboxing groove! Can you help me find it?

The other day I finally decided I might try this LTC thing. Afterall, it's a way I can participate with the US boxers as the postage would only be about 2 US postage stamps sending these cards in the mail. So, I set about looking up examples and trying to come up an idea. I finally got a quick idea and put it together. Very simple. But. . .I didn't like it. Well, maybe I should say, I liked it, but I don't think its in the league of what others are doing. I'm not a scrapbooker, but I admire people that can put together lovely assembled pages and cards and also put lovely carved images together in an artisitic way. A neat talent. But not one I have. So, I've put this LTC stuff on the shelf for now. Don't think it's for me.

This leads to another issue. I just don't want to carve anything. I don't like carving. It's my least favorite part of letterboxing. Some people love it. And I love seeing the awesome images they carve. But I can't do that. Sigh. . .

(Regardless, I thought this was a neat tutorial . . .http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/franontheedge/RubberCarving.html)

Perhaps the main issue is that there is no one to carve or plant for around here. It's not like I can go out and plant a box and the next day someone has found it. It may be months before someone gets to it. It may be long gone from the elements by then (I seem to be having a poor time with planting recently). Hard to get excited and motivated without some fellow letterboxers in your local area.

So, what to do? I'm going to put carving and planting away for now. I do have the obligation to plant some others boxes, and I will do those. But nothing I created. Not yet. I'm going to focus on finding. Just getting out and finding.

The same requirements for letterboxes as geocaches apply for me though. . .I've wasted so much time and energy on looking for boxes in crummy areas, with vague clues, with complex clues that frustrated me, etc. But I decided I just want to have a nice walk, a nice time outside, not think hard, just enjoy. And if one comes along that will take much more effort, I'll just decide how bad I want to get it.

This approach is not for everyone, obviously. We each find our own little letterboxing groove and focus on the things we like about it. I've had to resign myself to only letterboxing a few times a year now - when I can get over to Dartmoor or off to another area of England where some boxes are planted. Or maybe a trip to the US here and there.

Until then. . .

Slow and steady. . .just enjoy.