Wrangler Dani

I was feeling a little down and out today. It’s Monday, which means I have a “job o’ work” ahead of me, and I’d made some interpersonal mistakes that were weighing on my heart. Combine that with a long, emotional weekend and the realization that I have three weeks to pack up everything I own, and I was just a little grouchy and overwhelmed.

I wanted to curl up with a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and cry. I wanted to watch something terrible on TV and forget about all the stupid. I wanted to call someone and see who would listen to me be sad and tell me it was OK.

But you know what I did? I hand-wrote letters.

I prayed about my funk and it dawned on me that the best way to avoid self-absorption is to, well, focus on someone else. So I wrote thank-you notes to some friends. Thanks for being so much fun. Thanks for loving me. Thanks for your honesty. Thanks for your creativity.

Mostly it was friends here, people who I see multiple times a week and so are apt to forget to thank, or who I think should know how much they mean to me, but I’m realizing likely don’t. It’s a simple thing, the ritual of putting pen to paper and saying something heartfelt – but it started to cure my blues and I found myself grateful instead of grouchy, humbled rather than sad.

I think I’ll write letters more often… after all, I have a Sharpie collection that’s begging to be used for something more fun than labeling moving boxes.