Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how we interact with people when it comes to good deeds, and gift giving. I've always been uncomfortable with getting gifts, and people doing things for me. I'm not sure where this awkwardness in me originates from, but it's there. I've always had this fear that I'm not going to show the right amount of appreciation to the person doing the giving. On top of the fact that I hate the idea of owing anyone anything. You know that feeling when someone gets you a Christmas gift, but you didn't get them anything. Yeah, multiply that by about a million and you have me. While I know that a lot of people give without expecting anything in return, it's still nice to feel appreciated.
One of my worst nightmares happened about two years after Matt and I got married. Shortly after our wedding I had written all of my thank you cards, and a family member offered to address them and send them for me. I took her up on her offer. So imagine my HORROR when I was helping this person clean out a spare room, and found all of my thank you notes neatly addressed, complete with stamps in a shoebox. Oy Vey. After having a mini emotional breakdown, I hoped and prayed that people knew how much I appreciated them AND their gift. It still haunts me to this day!
Thinking about all of this inspired me. Why guess if someone knows how much you appreciate them, when you can express it to them? I know in my life, there have been so many people that have done things for me--even though they knew it wouldn't be easy for me to accept. So many people that have encouraged me, inspired me, and blessed me with something, even if they didn't know they were doing it. I have been truly blessed by people, their love, generosity, prayers.
Today, I sat down and made a list of those people. It was way longer than I thought for some reason. Then I broke out my little black calendar and started assigning each person to a week (which ended up being about 42 weeks). Each week, I will do something for that person. Send a note, deliver some coffee, bake them cookies, or whatever, and let them know why, and how much I appricate them. I'm so excited to do this! I feel like I have a lot of things that I've always meant to say, but never have. :-)
