October 29, 2016 - The lost art of the heart felt thank you note.

          This is an update to my October 16^th Blog.  

          This refers back to the blog that had the church yard sale and they let the customer decide what price the items would be.  I made the comment, “How do you haggle with God? You simply can’t.”

          At the time I thought it was clever, but today I am even more impressed.  I received an old fashioned – snail mail – thank you note in my mailbox from the church that ran the yard sale.

A lovely card: “I thank my God every time I remember you.”  Philippians 1:3 is on the cover of the card with a picture of a path in a green forest.

Inside on the left fold is handwritten:  “A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.”  Proverbs 18:16

          Inside on the right fold is an expression printed: “A heartfelt thank-you for your kind expression of” [white out of the word and] “support” hand written in.  AHH, here is a person after my own heart.  My Mom and I have been doing this for years; if the wording of a card is not “spot-on” we cross it out and revise it, or add to it. 

          My husband simply hates it when I do that to his cards.  He always says, “Can’t you just find a card with the right words?”

          “NO,” is always my answer. I even want to re-write other writers.

          WELL – they sure took the written thank you note to a totally NEW LEVEL.  I clutched it to my chest, smiled and said.  “WOW.”  I will tuck it into a book or a drawer and it will be noticed again, and I will read it again in the future and it will probably have the same impact.

          Impact is what is it all about from the “snail-mail” old fashioned, put-a-stamp-on-a-note and drop it in the United States Mail.  It is tangible.  You can savor it.  You can keep it.  It is powerful.  More powerful than a phone call that evaporates into the high or low drama of the day.

          And, that is why people like me enjoy them so much.

          Thank you notes are a lost art.  Somehow I would like to create a movement to make them an everyday thing again. It seems the last vestage is the bridal thank you note. In my mind I can mentally click off my list of those brides that did send me thank you notes for their lovely, well-chosen wedding gifts and those that never sent me thank you notes.  It is a terrible thing a memory like that. [I need to learn how to forgive; I will work on that when I retire.]

          At this point in my life . . . part of me still expects to see one, and then part of me knows that along with cursive, the art of the handwritten letter, the art of the thank you note has been lost to texting, emails, or a mere telephone call.

          But, just because everyone else is missing out on one of the simplest of things – the golden opportunities to send out little notes that make people smile and think and clutch them too their heart – doesn’t mean I can’t make a final stand and start a crusade to keep the old fashioned ‘snail mail’ thank you note alive.

          Will you join me?