The Gift of Telling

Sometimes you run out of time to tell people you love them. This year my grandmother passed away in May, then in October my mother-in-law died suddenly. During the last four years, I've lost six dear people, some slowly, some suddenly. I've realized that ordinary moments aren't so ordinary, they're actually beautiful treasures.

Telling someone how much they mean to you is a gift. A gift to you because you still have the opportunity to tell them and a gift to them because they get to hear it. I've been a bit more gushy of late, telling people that I love them or how grateful I am for them. Losing people has turned me into a softy and I don't apologize for it.

I've been sending silly, interactive postcards to the daughter of one of the friends I lost. I think about my friend every time I write a note to her grown daughter. I think about how my friend can't tell her daughter things like she would've if she'd lived but I can do it for her. So I do.

This Christmas you can give a conventional gift, something consumeristic and common, or you can gift someone with words. It doesn't matter if your words are odd, un-rhyming or misspelled, they will be held dear. They will reach into the heart of another in a way no other gift can.

It might be as simple as sending a loving text every hour on Christmas day.  I did this for one of my best friends on her 40th birthday. It didn't take much on my part, just remembering to send them as I went about my day, but those words lifted her and made her feel as special as she is.

Maybe your words could be spoken, texted, written in a letter or written on a chalkboard.

Words are powerful and free.

Give the gift of telling this Christmas.