A Little Book of Thank Yous: Letters, Notes & Quotes (Gratitude Meditations and Thank You Notes) (Little Book Of... (Conari Press)) - Hardcover

Johnson, Addie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573243744 ISBN 13: 9781573243742

Publisher: Conari Press, 2010

Synopsis

Say “Thank You” With a Happy Heart

“With this book, you’ll find yourself moving towards a happier and more fulfilling life. Gratitude is easy to embrace and very powerful.” ―Nina Lesowitz, bestselling author of Living Life as a Thank You

#1 New Release in Etiquette Guides & Advice

To say “Thank You” and to mean it benefits everybody. Kindness makes us strong, so write your thanks, message it, shout it from the rooftops—it's good for the one who hears it and better for the one who says it.

Discover why gratitude is important and the wonder of expressing gratitude daily. Gratitude brings abundance to you and to those around you—we all like to be acknowledged for our efforts. Author Addie Johnson shows us just how easy it is to improve your friendships and other relationships by expressing words of thanks. She offers us gratitude practices to grab on the run or to sit with and ponder, describes gratitude affirmations, and sets out to teach herself—and her readers—how to say “Thank You.”

This “Thank You” book is a small book with a great big heart. We all have things to be grateful for. Feeling gratitude is something that we can all relate to, and this theme runs throughout A Little Book of Thank Yous. From Winston Churchill to Barack Obama, from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf to Meister Eckhart, Addie Johnson pulls the best gratitude quotes from people from all walks of life. 

Inside A Little Book of Thank Yous, learn about:

• Gratitude affirmations and practices to help keep a thankful mindset
  
• How to say thank you in a meaningful way, for almost any occasion
  
• Words of radiance from historical figures and everyday people
  

If you liked books such as Words to the Rescue, The 5 Languages of Appreciation, or Thanks for the Feedback, you’ll love A Little Book of Thank Yous.

About this title

About the Author

Addie Johnson grew up in Minnesota and San Francisco, went east to Vassar College, and then stayed put in New York. She's an actor and helps run Rising Phoenix Rep, a small developmental theatre company. She's also an editor and writer, known for The Little Book of Big Excuses, Lemons to Lemonade, and A Little Book of Thank Yous. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, who help her remember every day that life is sweet.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Little Book of Thank Yous

Letters, Notes, and Quotes

By Addie Johnson

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2010 Addie Johnson
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-374-2

Contents

Introduction
1 Giving, Gratitude, and Grace: A Way of Life
2 The Power of Words, the Wonder of Deeds
3 Everyday Thank Yous, Lifelong Wellness
4 Offering Thanks, Receiving Abundance

CHAPTER 1

Giving, Gratitude,and Grace:A Way of Life

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned,earned, worn, or consumed. Happinessis the spiritual experience of living everyminute with love, grace, and gratitude.

Denis Waitley

I CATCH MYSELF SOMETIMES thinking thatthese three g's—giving, gratitude, and grace are—arelike credit in life. Meaning they're a wonderfulbonus once I get through the other stuff: obligations,stress, difficulty, trying to find some way tobe happy as the skies seems to be darkening aroundme. It can be easy to forget, particularly if I'm havinga tough time, that those three g's are the pitchand center of life, not things to shove to the outskirtsof my attention. Giving is always possible, no matterhow scarce my resources. Gratitude isn't just anafterthought, it's a forethought (as well as a duringthought!) and once that enriches the good times andsustains me through the bad. Grace is a goal and aninspiration, and can be found in everything from themost mundane to the most exciting moments andeverywhere in between. There are so many wonderfulsmall ways to put these into practice: as weexpress our thanks for the gifts we receive, as wedream up the wonderful gifts we can give to others,as we practice the spirit of graceful living in everyway we can. More of these three g's will bring thekind of life I want to grab hold of and never let go.

We make a living by what we get, wemake a life by what we give.

Sir Winston Churchill

We're all trying to make a life in the best we way weknow. It isn't easy, and in the process we may welllose sight of what we really want and need. Or wemay lose track of other people's wants and needs inthe relentless pursuit of our own. We try our best tomake a living, getting more whenever and howeverwe can, and making sacrifices and difficult choicesalong the way. Sometimes we delay the giving wemight be inclined to do, whether it's to charity, ormore time to spend with out kids, or putting timeand energy toward our own passions. We put off givinguntil we feel we have made enough of a living, asthough crossing the threshold of some magic numberor career milestone will suddenly make us feelinclined to generosity. Are we waiting until we havesomething to spare before we give anything? Thereis a way to make a life by giving, giving, giving, andit may not be any easier but it will most certainly bemore fulfilling.

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

Jean Anouilh

Gratitude is love. Love is gratitude. An expression oflove is an expression of gratitude. I love you means, inpart, I am grateful that you are in my life. I am gratefulthat I get the gift of getting to share my love withyou. And any thank you is an expression of love.

If we have the opportunity to begenerous with our hearts, ourselves,we have no idea of the depthand breath of love's reach.

Margaret Cho

Thank you for appreciating me.

This is a thank you for a thank you, and is often overlooked.When you get to the end of your rope, doingand doing everyone else in your life, hearing athank you can break the dam pent-up emotions.Knowing that someone appreciates what you're doingcan lift a terrific burden and is a gift in and ofitself. One good turn deserves another. Sending athank you in the form of a note or an email, or just aphone call, can mean the world.

Thank you for being who you are.

It takes courage to be who you really are, especiallyif you are not quite like everyone else around. Thatcourage can be contagious in a wonderful way. I havea friend who was a complete outcast in high school.She didn't even really understand why, except thatshe's firecracker and someone who doesn't see anypoint in changing her looks, mannerisms, or beliefsto fit the status quo. A lot of high schoolers devotethemselves to changing their looks, mannerism, orbeliefs in order to fit in, and no one knew what tomake of my friend, so they ridiculed and excludedher. She got a letter years later from one of her classmates,and part of it was about thanking her forhaving the strength and conviction to be who shewas, and not to try and change or fit in for the sakeof it. It turns our that my friend's struggle was beingwatched more closely than she imagined, andthat this classmate had gone on to find the samestrength in herself and was so much the better for it.

Give what you have.To someone, it may be betterthan you dare to think.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I've read quite a bit about one of the most successfulmodes of philanthropy out there right now—the ideaof micro loans. Given mostly to individual women orgroups of women, the loans of as little as a couple ofdollars are usually used as seed money for a business,buying starter supplies to build a store, or beginninga weaving or crafts collective. The success rates arehuge, and there are all sorts of added benefits for thefamilies of the women involved, like improved nutritionand education for the children. So even whilewe feel like we're desperately struggling in a richernation, even those couple of dollars we keep in thepenny jar might be able to do something somewhere.And in a broader sense, we need to remember not tocensor to give. Giving what you have is the best youcan do, and it can make all the difference.

Thank you for giving what you have.

It is expressly at those times whenwe feel need that we willbenefit the most from giving.

Ruth Ross

Thank you for being there.

My misery loved your company.Thank you for being there!

Unknown

Thank you for giving me HOPE.

Thanks for GIVING it your all.

Thank you for HELPING methrough a difficult time.

Thank you forTEACHING by example.

Thank you forCALMING my fears.

Thank you for INSPIRING meto go on when I felt likeI couldn't make it.

To give without any reward, or anynotice, has a special quality of its own.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I would like to believe when I diethat I have given myself away like atree that sows seed every springand never counts the loss, because it isnot loss, it is adding to future life.It is the tree's way of being.Strongly rooted perhaps, butspilling out its treasure on the wind.

Mary Sarton

Expressing gratitude serves as one of the most movingcondolences I know. When my father died, I gota letter from one of his best friends with memoriesof their youth together. His appreciation for my father—hisdumb jokes, his adventurous spirit, even hisstubbornness—came through so clearly, and I readthe note again and again, feeling wrapped in the lovehis friend had for him, and it was a huge comfort.

Gratitude is the fairest blossomwhich springs from the soul.

Henry Ward Beecher

Giving flowers as a thank you means so much. Theyreflect back the sweetness of any good deed, theybrighten any room and bring the natural world indoorsand closer to us. From the simplest single stemrose to the most luxurious bouquet, you just can'tgo wrong. Give dark pink roses or campanula (alsoknown as bellflower) for gratitude, pink roses forgrace, and lavender for devotion.

Out of the blue thank you!

Isn't it wonderful to get an unexpected gift? A carepackage from your best friend, a card from someonejust to say they're thinking of you, a single rose fromsomeone you love. It's just as thrilling to get a thankyou out of the blue. When's the last time you gotto thank a friend, parent, child, teacher, coworker, oranyone else for something that they do every day, orsimply for being who they are?

Thank you, whoever you are.

How do you thank an anonymous donor? Write athank you and post it where they might see it, on theInternet, or in a public place. It might be a picturemade with the art supplies donated to the class, or itcan be something done in turn anonymously to passthe giving on to someone else. But always rememberwhat any anonymous giver knows: the giving itself isa great reward, and the fact that you benefited fromthe gift is, in itself, an expression of your gratitude.

Mr. Volkmar von FuehlsdorffGerman Consulate General3450 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles 5, California

Dear Mr. von Fuehlsdorff:

Thank you for your champagne.It arrived, I drank it and I was gayer.Thanks again.

My best,Marilyn Monroe

Gratitude is not only the greatest ofvirtues, but the parent of all others.

Cicero

Feeling gratitude andnot expressing it is like wrappinga present and not giving it.

William Arthur Ward

The fragrance always remainsin the hand that gives the rose.

Heda Bejar

Thank you for being my friend ...

Blessed are they who have the gift of makingfriends, for it is one of God'sbest gifts. It involved many things,but above all, the power of going outof one's self, and appreciating whatever is nobleand loving in another.

Thomas Hughes

Thank you for the gift ...

The great art of giving consists in this:the gift should cost very little and yetbe greatly coveted, so that it may bethe more highly appreciated.

Baltasar Gracián

It's just what I needed right now ...

The excellence of a gift lies in itsappropriateness rather than in its value.

Charles Dudley Warner

I can hardly wait to return the favor ...

You try to give awaywhat you want yourself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

The best thing to give toyour enemy is forgiveness;to an opponent, tolerance;to a friend, your heart;to your child, a good example;to a father, deference;to your mother, conduct thatwill make her proud of you;to yourself, respect;to all men, charity.

Francis Maitland Balfour

Life is the first gift, love is the second,and understanding the third.

Marge Piercy

The dedicated life is the life worth living.You must give with your whole heart.

Annie Dillard

The currency of gratitude ...

Pennies

flowers picked from your gardena sticky note on the fridgechocolate, chocolate, chocolate

Nickels

a bottle of wine of a meaningful vintagea scrapbook of collected photos and remembrancesa donation to a favorite charitya poem or song you wrote for the occasion

Silver dollars

your first-born child (well, maybe not ...)

jewelry (speaking of first-born children, in some circlesit's customary for a new father to give a piece of jewelryto a new mother—a push present!)

a momento requested from a particular hero (I knew ateacher once who wrote to her student's favorite baseballstar and presented him with a signed card from him as athank you for surpassing the high standard she had setfor him.)

a trip someplace special—just to dinner, or a longer tripto a meaningful place

A thank you to a teacher

Dear Agelio,

I have thought of writing this letter for fifteen years,and am just now doing it. I didn't ever mean to waitthat long, and I'm hoping by some miracle that whatI want to say has percolated long enough that I'll beable to say it in as clear and strong a way as I feel it.

I just found this quote, by Carl Jung:

An understanding heart is everything in a teacher,and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looksback with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, butwith gratitude to those who touched our humanfeeling. The curriculum is so much necessary rawmaterial, but warmth is the vital element for thegrowing plant and for the soul of the child.

I remember very clearly a lot of what taughtme, down to the details of exercises and assignments,which seems pretty crazy to me since I don't havevery clear memories of a lot of my time in highschool, especially the year or so after my dad died.

I feel so lucky to have gotten to spend time in yourclassroom learning in a way that had more to dowith life and art, and learning to really see, morethan almost any other class I got to take. It was as ifyou sat down and wrote a curriculum that said:

Learn to take photographic portraits of young artists.

Learn to plat the guitar your father gave you.

Learn to see things like an artist sees them.

Grieve some.

I feel like you gave so freely of the "understandingheart" that Jung's talking about in such a simple,unpretentious, chill way, and I've thought aboutthat a lot over the past fifteen years, in becoming atheatre artist, running a theatre company, writing,and being a mom. I really can't thank you enoughfor that, and I just wanted you to know how muchit meant to me then and still means to me now.

I hope all's well your life and your work and thatyou and your family are doing great.

With huge respect and much love.

Addie.

No matter what your spiritual or religious inclination,sending your praise toward the heavens or outinto the universe brightens your outlook and liftsup your soul.

Wake at dawn with a winged heart andgive thanks for another day of loving.

Kahlil Gibran

We give thanks for unknown blessingsalready on their way.

Sacred ritual chant

God gave you a gift of96,400 second today.Have you used one to say "thank you"?

William Arthur Ward

Every time we remember to say"thank you," we experiencenothing less than heaven on earth.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

To the generous mind the heaviest debtis that of gratitude, when it isno in our power to repay it.

Benjamin Franklin

The glorious gifts of the godsare not to be cast aside.

Homer

If you can give your son or daughteronly one gift, let it be Enthusiasm.

Bruce Barton

CHAPTER 2

The Power of Words,the Wonder of Deeds

As we express our gratitude,we must never forget that the highestappreciation is not to utter words,but to live by them.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

IN THE DAILY PRACTICE OF GRATITUDE, we have somany options. Finding the thanks that fits the gestureis a fine art—whether it's through words overthe phone or handwritten in a note, or by the returnof a gift or favor, or something in action alone thatconveys the spirit of thanks—there are myriad waysto express ourselves. We can challenge ourselves tofind the truest, strongest way to say thanks, and to alwaysremember that the highest appreciation we canoffer is to use our gifts to the fullest as we go aboutour day-to-day lives and as we apply our moral valuesto the overall course of our life path. Write a thankyou note, throw an appreciation party, celebrate inunexpected ways, and live in a spirit of thankfulness.

Letters mingle souls.

John Donne

Handwritten letters in script or printed in block letters.Typed emails. Sticky notes on the fridge or in alunch box. Every time we put our thoughts downand send them off to be read by someone else, we callon the alchemy of hearts and minds joining throughsimple ink and paper. We remember how we are connected;we feel the mingling of our souls. It's powerfulmagic, available to us whenever we want it.

Ways to say thank you:

In your own handwriting,and with your own words:

• buy a lovely card

• write an email, personalizing it with specialfonts and graphics

• take out an ad in your local newspaper

• take the time to say it in person, especiallyover a cup of coffee or a meal

• talk on the phone

• or, send the thanks through a twist on the gameof telephone—so that the intended recipients ofyour thanks' eard are buzzing as they hear howgrateful you are from everyone they know

Things you can make:

on the more traditional side:

• photo albums and scrapbooks

• baking—cookies or a cake made at home alwaystaste better, even if they're from a box!

• a flower arrangement you make yourself

• handmade cards—one of my favorite simplesideas is to cut a stencil of a heart shape out of acoffee can lid, and kids can color it in to make adesign on the front of the card

• handicrafts: knitting, origami, décolletage, etc.

not so traditional:

• Send a copy of your letter to a superior. Irecently read this comment from a physicianwho felt like this about writing thank you notesto doctors: "Finally, I agree that a letter to aperson's employer or boss is usually the best gifta person can receive, physician or otherwise. Inmy case, please also send a copy to my mother."

• videos—you can do something simple and sweeton your home computer and post it online foreveryone to see

• you can make a Twitter, Facebook, or othersocial networking thank you, or create a viralemail campaign just to send on your gratitude

• appreciation buttons—this is a great one fora teacher, to come into a class full of studentswearing thank you buttons made just for them!

• a thank you singing telegram—order onethrough a service, hire the a capella group froma local college, or organize your friends and doyour own

(Continues...)

Excerpted from A Little Book of Thank Yous by Addie Johnson. Copyright © 2010 Addie Johnson. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Conari Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573243744
• ISBN 13: 9781573243742
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128