Good Manners: Thank You Notes

While I realize some proper behaviors and good manners have changed since I was born, there are a few things that I believe are still important.  Writing thank you notes is one of them.  It is an important task I learned as a child and passed on to my children.

Today I received a note from a friend in a distant city.  It was a short note, hand signed and addressed in an envelop with a stamp.  It was not an email or message posted on social media to just take care of the "thank you".  Time and effort had been put into it.  That spoke volumes to me.  It made the message special.  It made me feel special.  It is a lesson I will remember.

Of course it takes time to send personal thank you notes to dozens of people who send wedding gifts, baby gifts, meals to struggling families, flowers for funerals, etc.  But even if it takes a year to catch up with the notes, it makes all the difference to the one receiving it.  Taking a short cut with a generic email on a distribution list or posting notes to the individual on social media (and everyone else sees it) is just not the same.  It may be better than nothing, but seriously, isn't what someone has done for you worth a little more than that?  Isn't their sacrifice worth a simple note?

When in doubt, take the time to do what is best, not just enough to get by.  That is a good lesson for thank you notes and life.

Making Changes with Priorities

No doubt our priorities can change.  We always keep the most important things where they are in our list, but within those broad categories (God, Family, Work, etc.) we can make changes. 

When our children are small, our priority is to give them the necessities of life and help them learn to be responsible, independent adults.  When they are grown, that is no longer an issue although our children and family still have the same place in the hierarchy of priorities.  Changes happen as we mature and experience the different stages of our lives. 

As I retired from 30 years of classroom teaching, my organizing business was just getting started.  Within a year, it grew so rapidly that it consumed as much time as teaching.  At that point, I had to make a choice of keeping it as a priority with my time or placing it below other things that were more important.  Upon retiring from the teaching career, I had hoped to spend more time in the activities of my church and with my grandchildren.  I couldn't do that with this new career, so I began to train other organizers to take most of the workload.  Also, I no longer update my organizing blogs on a monthly basis, but have structured them together with archives that keep the monthly tips available to anyone wanting them.

It is hard to let go of routines that are familiar and even more so with relationships.  It may be necessary, however, to do just that in order to keep our priorities in line.  Growth takes place whenever we are able to make those hard choices.  That is what maturity is all about.