Hello!
I’ve been on a bit of a newsletter break, but I wanted to pop back into your inbox with a short note during this, the Most Grateful-est Time of the Year.
I got to go into to my 7-year-old’s class this week and talk about gratitude. Charlie was SO EMBARRASSED about the visit, but once I was in the class, he couldn’t stop smiling. I sat in front of these lovely, squirmy 7-year-olds, and I asked them to rate writing thank you notes 0-10. They gave a whole range of answers, and they were all appropriately shocked and impressed to learn that even though my rating was about a 5-6, at least for most of my life, I’d written 365 OF THEM IN ONE YEAR.
I read them an excerpt from chapter 10, when visited the high school in Virginia where the librarian, Beth, had started Thankful Thursdays after reading about my gratitude project. It’s starts on page 143, if you happen to have the book. It’s one of my favorite parts. It was such a privilege spending an afternoon with high schoolers as they wrote gratitude notes to their teachers and friends, and shared the contents with me.
When I finished reading, my son’s teacher, Ms. Gerchick, pulled out the tattered thank you notes she’d been keeping in her purse for 19 years, from her very first year of teaching. The mother of her most challenging student wrote her such a heartfelt note. She read it aloud to the class. The kids were enthralled, as was I. (Teachers!! The best!)
The kids’ questions were so sweet. Mostly they wanted to know whether I painted the picture on the front and how I made the hardcover (with white cardboard?).
I need to quickly wrap this up and pick up my kids; we are headed to the Upper West Side for Thanksgiving. It’s truly our family’s favorite day of the year. My in-laws live on the Macy’s Day parade route, so the day starts so magically, with my head stuck out of a Central Park West window, taking in all the floats and balloons. And that’s not even the best part. The best part is when 20-30 people sit down to the most glorious, lovely, warm, fun dinner. My in-laws have been producing this two-party extravaganza for 40-plus years, and it’s so warm and wonderful.
(Me, tomorrow morning, but with longer hair)
I am wishing you a restful and joyful day. I think I’ll come back to this newsletter soon with some fresh ideas and energy. Thank you for sticking with me, in the meantime.
Love,
Gina