Philately

Philately (n.)

The love of traveling

and of places

and the people in them.

The love of life,
of living larger than one's home
or town or nation
or time.

The love of breath
that speaks words across doorsteps,
across miles, across months.
Breath that caresses a note
imbuing it with scents of home.

The love of tangible reminders
that people love and care
and shop and argue and move
and joke and spy
and live and breathe with each other
from half a world away.