Dear Diary,
Once years ago my neighbor said to me, “Around your house you are polite to each other, you say thank you.” I had not thought about it but it is true, for the most part we say thanks in acknowledgement of tiny things, like bringing in the firewood, cooking an egg, or doing the dishes. My husband and I both expect that we notice these little things and note them.
Robert, my husband, always says, ”People say they do not want to be thanked, but they do, because they notice it when they are not thanked. It is common to hear someone mention…”I don’t mind doing it but at least they could say thanks.” As much as we say”aaaah… it’s nothing”, the truth is we enjoy being thanked, just hearing the word or getting a note. So this is where I should sayto you …..Thank you for reading this diary and for visiting the site, and for your interest in my work. I mean it.Thank you.
That is the other thing about thank you, they need to be genuine. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. Years ago I worked on a staff at a university and one of the deans sent out a form letter to all the student staff thanking them for their contribution to the university. One of the students came down stairs to my office and said,” What… did this guy go to a conference and they told him people like to be thanked, so he came back and had his secretary do this up?” I smiled. How could I not. I have no idea if the thanks was genuine, but I know the delivery left something to be desired.
There are so many people in my life that I really cannot thank enough. This year started for me with a thank you rug. My first rug of the year was a “thank you” rug. I decided I would make a rug that I could use as a thank you card. Over the first few days of planning it, it changed and developed into a “gratitude project”. At first I thought it would be my own little personalized thank you note that I would send out to people for all the kindnesses I receive. As I hooked it , I thought why stop there, give it to others to use as a thank you card also. I then decided that I would give the card away to others to use to thank people who are kind to them. The project is still in the develop stages, but the rug is done, ( and it is pretty)and plans are in the works to have the card made. I plan to get lots made and give them away to people. It is my little effort to encourage thank you note sending, the counting of blessings, and just generally spreading a little bit of gratitude around. In my mind it is “The Gratitude Project”, a little idea. Katherine, who works with me, said, use it as a way to celebrate your anniversary, this year I have been hooking rugs for twenty years. So there it is, a little celebration of thank you, that is about to begin in the studio.
Thank YOU, Deanne, for all your inspiration and beautiful works of art.
We say thanks for the small things in life in our household too. My husband brought this more importance in our family and I appreciate that he’s done so. When I hear how many times a day my 3-year-old says please, thank you, no thank you and I love you, I feel that we’ve received the greatest gift and have all the riches one could ever need.
I’m also a strong believer in sending handwritten thank you notes, so I love your idea for these new thank you cards.
Thanks Allison for your note