The Most Precious Gift of All

During a brief archeological dig in my attic I uncovered a box of words tucked into the eaves. Cards and letters tied with ribbons - tattered corners, ruffled edges. How carefully safeguarded they were in the wooden box that has protected so many memories - fragments of days and years and even lifetimes that have passed. At times just the handwriting stirs a memory and brings a soul to mind. Yet nestled within the strings of letters lays evidence of a connection, a relationship, a place where our lives have crossed.

There are treasures that are handed down in wills and promises but nothing as special as words-bits and pieces of heart and soul. Greeting cards have done their part - mere understudies for our own words when we wonder how to convey what we really feel. And so we sign our name as if the words they’ve chosen say exactly what is in our hearts. 

 I stumbled across letters my mother had written to me while I was in college. When I read each one, I felt as if I was holding a part of her in my hands. I heard her voice. I revisited memories that I surely would have forgotten. Each became an artifact of the life we shared. Notes from family, friends, teachers and students cascade into my heart. 

 It has become rare to see a handwritten envelope in our mailboxes. The mystery draws us in so quickly. Who has taken the time to put pen to paper-purchase a stamp and bring this to the post office? There must be some bit of magic inside. 

 I like to encourage a connection of our hearts to our pens and when we choose words- choose carefully-so that our words will stick like glue to the heart. Words are powerful. Words are precious. Words are healing - they build and nourish, encourage and inspire.

 Don’t leave them dangling. Let them fall onto the page and out into the world-into the welcoming hands that touch them as carefully as foreign currency and wait with anticipation for that first word to enter. Take the time to leave behind a little piece of your soul that you have recorded and shared. 

 When given a gift we have lived-long with the adage, ‘open the card first’ and we know why. Simply said, it is because words are certainly the most precious gift of all!