Use your words!

The leftovers have been gobbled up, the Black Friday crush has thinned and folks are immersed in Cyber Monday surfing. We SAY we should keep the spirit of gratitude alive all year long, now as Nike says "Just do it."

I have actually been thinking about this for a few weeks now and have been jotting down lots of random things that come to my mind. These are things I always THINK of doing, but don't necessarily take time to make them happen.   Now I am slowly but surely taking action each day. 

Over the weekend I heard my sister-in-law say to my little nephew "use your words!"  And I thought, hmm, that's not such as bad idea!I I have always believed the old adage that 'actions speak louder than words,' and while I still agree, your words hold power too.

So when something I like or appreciate or am grateful for strikes me, I chose to take deliberate action. Turns out it takes practically no time at all!

For example here are a few of my efforts the last few days:

• Tweeted to a producer about one of his movies I'd just seen (and how much I loved it).
• Submitted a restaurant review on Trip Advisor of a place we enjoy having dinner
• Wrote an email to an author whose book I just finished to thank her
• Dropped a line to someone who inspires me with her example

My intention is to put more goodness and gratitude out into the world.   By no means do I wish or need any thanks or acknowledgement.  Expecting that would be a contradiction.  But, sure enough, when you put good stuff out there, it comes back tenfold. 

I received a beautiful reply today from someone I had emailed...and the last line speaks volumes:

 "Thank you, again, Kristen, words matter - and yours just made my day!"


Use your words.  They matter.