A Lesson for Today...
Say the Words

I woke up this morning as I often do on a normal, nothing-much-planned, Tuesday morning in the Summertime (meaning, the kids--except McKenna, who has color guard camp all week long--were still sound asleep at 9 a.m.). I grabbed a glass of iced sweet tea (the true "coffee" of the South), took a quick shower, and sat down in front of the computer for my ritualistic morning email check.

When I saw a message with the subject line "Good Morning" from Gary, I figured he was emailing me to tell me what his schedule was like for the day (he's out of town on business) or to possibly get on to me about not doing something I needed to do (i.e: let him know about any checking account transactions I did yesterday; I admit it, I'm not the queen of financial matters!).

Imagine the sweet sensation I felt when I opened up the email and it simply said: "I love you!" (with the fun little information that the email was sent via his Blackberry).

I got a nice little warm tingly feeling and knew that all was right with the world. For I am loved by someone who tells me I am loved.

Which brings me to another little encounter with special words recently.

One of my very favorite teenagers in the whole wide world (aside from the two who live in my home and eat all my snacks!) posted a note on her Facebook page the other day in which she told her different best friends why she loved them. I thought it was such a self-actualized, "I'm comfortable with who I am" sort of thing to do, because (really!) how often do teenagers (or any of us!) really let the people around us know how we feel.

And then I felt incredibly blessed because she had listed me (the lone adult!) and told me why she loved me. She said I was understanding and treated her with respect and all sorts of other sweet things.

What a wonderful way my heart and life was lifted from her simple action of putting some words together!

Which takes me from my lesson for today to a challenge for today:

If we feel love (or compassion, or empathy, or regret, or any sort of emotion) for someone, we need to take advantage of the opportunity today to tell him or her about it. Today is the best day for words...because, truly, what is a good reason for waiting to share your love with someone?


So...

* Say, "I love you" to someone you love but often forget to tell (because, for some reason, isn't it the people closest to us that we love the most that we tell the least?).

* Tell someone that you appreciate them. (I'll never forget the time that Gary decided to write a letter to the older lady who had served as his Boy Scout den mother when he was a little boy. He just wanted to tell her how special she had been to him and how he appreciated what she had done. It can be something as simple as that. Or something even simpler like writing a thank you note, or telling a friend that you love them for listening to you.)

Life is short (I am truly being reminded of this many times this week, as I register McKenna for her senior year and realize how quickly things go by), so we need to take the time to say "I love you."

Simplistic? Perhaps. But true? Absolutely!