Letter from Shannon

Shannon was quite young when she wrote this classic letter – The Thank you letter.  I have to add a note here to all mom’s  . . .  SAVE THOSE LETTERS !

When we are in the throngs of child rearing and life is so very busy – we tend to look at those letter and say – “oh  isn’t that cute” and then toss them aside.   You don’t really understand the magnitude of that thank you written in a 2nd or 3rd grade classroom years ago, until you are older and your kids are grown up and gone.   If you saved those letters like I did – you will one day run across one like this . . .

“Dear Mom,  Thank you for all you do for me.”

Those precious words that every mother hopes she will hear some day !!!!!  Well you heard it and you forgot – until you unearthed that famous box of letters.

Mom’s are the recipients of many thank you letters from our children when they are young.  Then we are in the teenage years where we are lucky to get a hello.  As they reach adulthood they don’t have time ~ But that doesn’t mean they are not thankful.   So what should you do with those letters?  You can keep those thank you’s and make them the “THANK YOU’S THAT KEEP ON GIVING!   I framed some of mine and placed them is places where I still spend a lot  of time, places where I need to smile – the laundry room, the bathroom, the garage.  They remind me and my children too – how important those thank you’s are no matter at what age they are written.  Framing them and hanging them,  make me Smile!  They make my kids smile too – that I bothered to save them – which shows them that I appreciated that they wrote the note in the first place.

My dad just told me again  the other day  that he still has my thank you notes , tucked safely away in a briefcase – a place where he can go when he gets discouraged or feels unappreciated or even at his age,  forgotten.  The letters remind him that his children were thankful at one point in life .

Teach your children to write thank you notes – do not make them a thing of the past.

The thank you note, like this one from my daughter, is even more appreciated as we look back on the history of those dreaded teen age years of her life.  The heading of the letter on the special paper that her teacher provided  starts,  ~ “I Love My Mom” ~ From there she begins her thank you in her own handwriting –  she just learned cursive that year – another thing of the past.  They are not even teaching the writing technique in school anymore.

“Thank  you for reading me prayers”

“Thank you for coming to my first holy communion”

“Thank you for giving me kiss”

Then she says “Ps I live you” But I know that means “I love you”

This thank you is important for many reasons – it gives my daughter a sense of pride – she wrote it.  The letter reminds her that she was young and innocent at one time – and could not spell.  It highlights the date of her First Communion – May 1997.  It gives her a sense of understanding as to who she was as a child.

So if you run across those letters in the near future or already have found them and don’t know what to do with them, here are some ideas from others that are worth passing along:

What to do with old cards and letters by Katie Clemons
https://theartofsimple.net/what-to-do-with-old-cards-and-letters/

Or – take some tips from the Simply Spaced professional organizing team
https://simplyspaced.com/2015/09/how-to-organize-birthday-cards/

* * On a side note – there are many great books about letters and the history they preserve that I love ~ My favorites :

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society –

Or

The Greatest Generation Speaks:  Letters and Reflections

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And let the letters begin . . .

“Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway” that is the title of a book Aunt Penny sent me once. What I am writing tonight is my first blog entry and I have fear. I have fear – why, I am not sure, but I am doing it anyway.

So the reason for my blog – mostly to record and preserve history and the lesson history teaches. Letters that we used to write, informed us on events, feelings and updates on our families, friends and issues of our world.

When we first received them, they brought us news, brought us details, but even more, created a record. With the internet and email, the art of letter writing is next to gone and I fear some of the history as well, may disappear.

The book about fear was sent to me with a letter that I kept. The letter told me why she sent the book and then went on to talk about her children, her grandchildren, her planned trips and her work along with ideas for the years ahead. Aunt Penny offered insight and wisdom years ago.

So, I would like to preserve history – to write a letter daily or maybe more realistically weekly, about life, about family and friends and the events that create it, along with the insight we can gain. The book Aunt Penny sent me was one she received with a letter from a friend when she was going through a difficult time – she kept the letter and the book and passed a bit of her life on to the next generation when she addressed the envelope to me.

So, if you are into family, have interest in a crazy Irish clan that used to write letters or can not find anything more interesting to read – join me for some fun as I resurrect the letters of the past and reflect on their importance to our present and future.

“We fear success; we fear failure. We fear living; we fear dying.” Whatever we fear, it can be dealt with through education from others recorded in the letters of life!

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