When you send gifts across the continents, you give more than a box–you give a narrative. Think of a package that travels across oceans, traversing through airports and cities, and finally arrives at the hands of a person who never sees it coming. That shock lasts much longer than the item does.

The burden of friendship can be carried in the form of a simple scarf that is transported abroad. The cloth is ordinary, and the adventure extraordinary. Whenever it is put on, the wearer recalls the idea, the effort, the distance that was covered. Gifts are sentimental postcards, deaf but mighty letters.

Consider the rituals that are associated with it. Choosing the right item. Wrapping it, the awkward way it goes. Composing a note that attempts to embody the words of feelings that can not be completely defined. The very process of waiting in a queue at a courier office contributes to the story as well. One day, the recipient looks back and laughs–“You remember how you had sent that huge box, and it came back with custom stickers on it? The inconvenience fades into memory, and the memory becomes something to be valued.

And there is the pleasure of the accidental. A knock at the door, a messenger coming and giving a package with strange stamps. Curiosity builds. Unwrapping is as though a peeling back of distance until, at last, the connection is revealed. It can be a small item, such as a book, a mug, or a bracelet, but the resonance is felt.

It is best told in stories of families apart. A foreign child brought home cookies. A tourist who is opening a pack of local snacks they have missed. These movements say, I thought of you. That murmur is more than any verbal communication.