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[blank]As I sat up late one evening before the holidays, wrapping some gifts and ticking things off of my to-do list, I thought about how much repetition is part of a mother’s life.
How many tables to be laid, meals to be cooked, rooms tidied, nappies changed, stories read, vegetables peeled, beds made, homework checked, grazed knees kissed, drawings admired … christmas gifts wrapped…..
how many parents evenings sat through, how many team matches cheered at, how many school runs driven, or late night parties picked up from …..
I could go on for a long while …..[blank]
[blank]In my attic I have a box of old letters that I have received throughout my life from family and friends. Each and every one ends with something like “love to you”, or “take care darling, I love you”.
Remember letter writing? such a wonderful way of saying how much we care.
In our busy world of changing communications and anonymous living in big cities, the reassurance that someone cares is more and more important. We may not write letters any more, and emails aren’t quite the same, so it’s up to us to find other ways to show our love. To remember that our little ones always need to hear those words, even when they’ve grown a head taller than us! and to know that someone in today’s world is caring for them and holding them dear to their hearts.
So my list of repeated tasks is maybe more than just an ode to domestic duties, maybe each and every little thing we do is simply our way of saying those three little and totally unconditional words[blank]
I . . . . love. . . . you[blank]
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photos found on google images
38 comments
I agree with everything and enjoyed reading your post.
Jan Berry
Not entirely aside from your posting, Sharon??…
My New Year's resolution is to increase doing what I started doing this past year….which is to write actual letters/cards that go through the mail.
I send out (and I expect this won't surprise you) hundreds of emails,since I work and play at home. I've begun asking myself "Why aren't you WRITING this in a letter? Do you need an immediate 'answer' or some speedy sort of 'you're so nice' acknowledgement?". So, I write (as in I don't send an email) anything that really means something….thank you notes, birthday wishes, etcetera. I did this for years, but, like so many people, have shifted to the habit of simply popping off a quick email or leaving a brief telephone message.
It's amazing how happy a "real" letter makes folks; they immedaitely telephone (and most of my friends and relatives aren't the sort who really talk much on the telephone) to burble a variation on "Oh…it was so wonderful to get a REAL letter…that felt so nice…THANK you !!!
My favorite moment of this sort occurred a few months ago, when the guests at lunch here were three women who were 75, 87, and 91 (and, just for the record? the 91 year old drove herself ten miles to the 87 year old's house, who then drove them to the 75 year old's house to pick her up, since she's "scared" to drive….a case-in-point that you're only as old as you feel).
As they got into the car after lunch, they all thanked me. I leaned in the passenger-window and said "Oh, I'm the one who needs to write thank-you notes to you folks….that was great fun". All three of them lifted and fluttered their hands and burbled, in their deep Southern accents, "Oh, my lord! A ree-yull LETTAH!!! Imagine!!! Oh, it'll be so fun to have somethin' in the mailbox besides just bills!!!".
Basically, my resolution is to write a LETTER or NOTE if I want or need to say something that really means something.
I just copied-out all the birthdays from last year's calendar into this year's…..and I put them a week ahead of time (I finally thought of this, after years of forgetting someone's birthday until it's too late to do anything but telephone). So, I'll always have the time to write a good, sincere card and get it posted in-time to arrive on the birthday.
Happy New Year,
David Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
Your so right about the lost art of
letter writing. I miss letters.
Loved your post.
Happy New Year
Sandy
thank you for your contribution David … I'll be sending you my postal address and birthday date 🙂
Dear Sharon
This post is all so true and it's so important, especially about telling our loved ones how much they mean to us.
We still send real (charity) Christmas cards and include a letter with small pictures of the family. People say they enjoy getting our letters which we try to make amusing and interesting. And we love hearing from old friends who live in different cities or OS. Sadly many are just sending email Christmas messages now. But it's just not the same somehow. Also I always feel sad when I see people have written Xmas and not Christmas. I learned when I was a child never to abbreviate it as our teacher explained that to do so takes the Christ out of Christmas. It's something I've never forgotten.
We did receive a very appealing e-Christmas card from an English friend who lives in Paris, a very cute scene of a small church in the snow with the choir boys filing into the church and singing a Christmas carol.
It's also very exciting to receive Christmas parcels in the post. Brings back many happy childhood memories.
Happy New Year, Sharon and David. May it be happy and filled with good things for you and your loved ones.
Best wishes, Pamela
Just as I stated in my New Year's comment, I am here having my morning coffee with you.
Your post has me inspired.
Every year, one of my sweet blog friends writes a Christmas letter to each of her children. At the end of the Christmas day festivities, Linda delivers her letters. Together they sit, relax, and silently read their letters. She has blogged about it for a couple years. One year she took a photograph. The image of everyone immersed in their letter was so dear.
I would love to start a tradition so sweet…if only a note, the first three words would be I Love You!
~Lynne
w/L.
Letter writing is indeed a lost art. I vote that each one of of us brings it back this year.
Have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
I love letter writing too! Love to write love to get…especially a wonderfully sweet thank you note!
Not only is letter writing getting scare the beautiful handwriting is just not around any more. My mother and her generation had beautiful penmanship. It was important when she was in school (she is 85). Now, they are going to stop teaching cursive. That's sad, isn't it.
Love that first picture. I would love to have 3 or 4 beds in one room for the grandkids. Love the chairs with the stuffed animals on them.
How true it is that letter writing has gone. How many times have we heard someone say 'I'm sorry I haven't been in touch, my computers not working' !! I get so cross. I will certainly be sending more letters or note-lets, & hope to be receiving some.
I agree with you Sharon, about telling the kids they are loved even though they are growing older. One of mine had an emotional day yesterday and I had texted her to tell her that I am always here for her if she wanted to talk..then she came to me for a hug, a few hours later. One thing my kids will always know is that I love them. And I think the repetition is what demonstrates our love for them (even though we may go a little batty, doing the same things over and over!) hugs, cathy
Those three simple little words can change the look on a child's face, bring a smile to someone who needed it, and a wonderful feeling for the person who says them! Great post!
What a wonderful post to read this morning.
We have four children (across the ocean in Canada) and we often comment on how repetitious the days can be, although we wouldn't change a second of it.
As I pop a pan of chocolate cookies in the oven with a little one tugging on my apron strings, it is a good reminder that all of the little things we do on a daily basis do indeed add up to something magical and loving.
Kathryn
P.S. I daydream every day of bringing my family to France for a holiday. I hope one day soon it will be a reality!
As I go through my repetitive daily chores I keep that thought in mind: I do this for love of my family. Also, I continue my parents act of actually saying I Love You everyday and often. I does not lose its power in the repetition – ever. Lovely photo.
"Repeat the sounding JOY"
"Repetition is after all the Mother of learning" – I love repetitive acts, cooking, cleaning, sewing and writing letters too.
Love to you –
pve
You are so right Sharon, those three little words can change my day – my three children are now all in their 30's, but we still say "love you" at the end of almost every phone call – it means so very much. And this morning I received three thank-you letters in the mail – how much nicer than a quick email! New Year's resolution – write more letters!
I love writing letters and receiving them…and I love my family. I tell them everyday and trust that all my actions say it with every fiber of my being~ I love them.
One of my favorite poems about domesticity and parenthood is called The Continuous Life by Mark Strand.
I recommend reading it.
When I first met my current partner I would send him every week and a half a card with a love note written inside. He loved it and I loved doing it.
We always get bills and junk in the mail, and it's so much nicer to come home at the end of the day to a special note from someone.
Your blog post just reminded me of another resolution I have for 2013 …….. more sweet notes to my friends.
There is never enough " I love you's" for your loved ones is there. I always tell my children that I love them, every single time that I talk to them and all my other family members and close friends too. Life is too short not to tell people how you feel about them. I also am planning on sending more handwritten notes to people, as I too have been missing that lost art. It feels so good to get a letter from friends and family. Happy New Year, Sharon! xxoo
How lovely is this post. So beautifully written. Thank you. You are so right.
Lisa
leeshideaway.blogspot.com
Thank you for another beautiful blog, Sharon, and a wonderful way to start out the New Year! I will resolve to remember those three little words each and every day… Wishing you many blessings in 2013, Cynthia
Thank you for all your inspiration this last year. Your photography and posts are so original!
Wishing you health, happiness and living your dreams in the New Year!
Jody
Hi dear! Love everything here and love your lovely space! I wish you and all of yours a happy and adorable new year, so full of many blessings and so much love! Lots of kisses, Marie
Ma chère, une merveilleuse nouvelle année!!! 🙂
Sharon, what a lovely post! I buy beautiful cards wherever I am travelling and always use them as birthday cards, which I love writing with a fountain pen. Just doing so gives me a quiet few minutes in a busy day. I wish you a year ahead filled with love and happiness.
lovely words, this……smiles
I really wish we all still wrote letters…not a big fan of texting. Great post!
Blessings,
Linda
Enormous information in one blog post, I just love it. I must appreciate and mention that you completely know how to keep connected reader to blog post even if it is little long. Very good job.
I still write letters, though not nearly as often as I did. A very Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours!
A wonderful observation. Children need to know that they are loved through actions and not just words. In our time-poor lives it is easy to send an email and say "I love you" but far more difficult to pen and post a letter, read to your child, cook for the family and hear the multiplication tables of reluctant offspring. Warm regards
Loved this post. I try to send something out each week in the post. Birthday's always receive a written note. I also adore to receive a letter that someone has taken the time to write. Nothing like it! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
Dear Country French Style Homes
If you want to give a compliment to someone, give a compliment. Don't put a sting in the tail. It takes the edge off it and reflects badly on you. Saying that the post is a little long spoils your message.
Personally I don't agree that it's too long. There is no immutable law that says a post must be a certain length. There is room for flexibility in blogging, sometimes short messages, sometimes longer. I find blogs that are prepared to discuss worthwhile subjects more interesting than people who just take photos of themselves or houses.
I have never seen your blog and because of your message above wouldn't be inclined to. Hope you think about this and come to understand the problem you've created here.
Very well writen, thanks
"I Love You" is the sweetest thing ever especially heard and said by our loved ones. Today we seldom do writing a letter because of so many ways of communicating.
Repeating chores is part of being a mother, enjoy it. Lovely photos you have.
Another amusing and sorta-touching anecdote:
I can't recall which radio program aired a particular interview that delighted me this past year….but it was with a young-ish, adult woman, who had several siblings and parents of whom she was quite fond. All in all, a lovely-sounding family. Sadly, their joke-cracking father was terminally ill and died after a few, lingering months. Prior to the funeral, the mother handed each of the chilkdren (all adults) a personal letter written by the father just before he'd died. The children all retired to their rooms to read their letters. The one to the author told how much he had always loved and been proud of her…concluding with "Don't ever tell the others, but you've always been my favorite". She was, of course, secretly gratified to know this, but kept her mouth shut for the next couple of days. The day after his funeral, she and her siblings were gathered at the family house….when the mother suddenly said that she knew he'd sent out individual letters to all of his children (all adults)….and wouldn't it be NICE if they each read their letters out loud to each other???? The author freaked out, of course, but the mother kept INSISTING, and the author simply couldn't say "no". So, she read the letter…got to the conclusion, interrupted to say "I'm sorry, but he ended with…"…and she read the phrase. Everyone sat in shocked silence for a moment…and then the mother started laughing her head off. Turns out that the father (who had ALWAYS been a joker) had played his last, embarassing practical-joke on them by writing that same, concluding phrase to each of them…knowing the effect it would have. And, then, they all ended up laughing and feeling, according to the author, as though he were still with them. I expect some folks will find that a terrible thing to do, but I loved the tale…and the author/her family loved it, also.
Level best as Ever,
David Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
A walk to my mailbox and then finding a sweet note and card is a precious and wonderful thing. Just makes your day. I love searching for just the right card to "fit" the person and sending knowing it may brighten their day. No email cards here. Beautiful post!
I really enjoy reading your blog and I really love this post. For me doing domestic duties for ones family is a way of constantly showing love to them and each one is in need of that love. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! Sarah Tesch