Gratitude

 

Recently I've been seeing hints and tips for 'leaders' to make sure they show appreciation to their team and say thank you.

This is something I have done for as long as I can remember - I try to make sure that when someone does something, not necessarily for me, but when I see them doing 'good', I try to thank them.

I know they aren't looking for atta-girls, or at least most of them aren't.  They are just kind people who do nice things, 'good' things, for others.

Particularly during this time of pandemic and isolation, and since the rise of the internet, it seems good old-fashioned thank you cards have become rare as hens teeth.

From time to time I will drop a tea towel 'burrito' on someone (locally) or mail one or two to a distant person who I see doing good things, kind things.  Let's face it, I'm not short of tea towels, and I can't possibly sell them all, so they become 'tips' to my health care team, or a 'just because' thing to friends.

I do this for people who appreciate hand made things - if they don't they will get a verbal thanks.  But some people are 'gift worthy' and get hand wovens, usually out of nowhere, just because I was thinking of them, or I saw them do something 'good' for others, and I wanted to let them know that people notice them doing good.  Because I don't want them to think no one notices or cares that someone, somewhere is trying to do something positive for others.  Especially now where there is so much negativity in the air.

A few weeks ago I sent off a couple of packages to people and this week I got an actual thank you card in return.  It didn't just say 'thank you', but recounted a memory they had of something that happened between us a very long time ago.  They wanted to let me know they still remembered that time and that it had made a lasting impression on them.

It got dusty in here.  Very, very dusty.

I well remembered the time, had no idea whatsoever that they remembered it or that it had made that kind of impression on them.  If I had been looking for something to warm the cockles of my heart (which I wasn't, honestly, but still) I got it that day.

The card sits on my mantel, a reminder that sometimes the 'little' things we do are not so little to someone else.

And that it is always better to be kind.  Always.