Echoes of Kindness

I've been very good to myself today!

This morning, I took a 2-mile walk in a brisk wind. I was only going to take a one-mile walk so that I wouldn't be late for an appointment, but it felt so good to have inspirational tunes in my ears and the wind in my face, that I literally "went the extra mile."

The appointment? An herbal wrap and massage. This was Part II of the gift certificate I received for my birthday last November. Oh, my! So good for me.

The thing about deep massages, though? They call forth all kinds of intense emotional issues. When I get very, very quiet and in tune with my breathing and the rise and fall of my muscles, a lot of deep feelings arise.

Note to self: Get quiet more often!

Once at home, I felt like clicking things off my To Do List. This was a good one:

Over the last couple years I've begun really listening to the things people say to me. Usually, it's easy to remember the cruddy things people say ... and relive them over and over, beat myself up with those words.

To counteract those icky things, I've been paying attention and writing down the nice things people tell me. I tend to write them on scraps of paper and collect them in piles.

Today, I took those scraps and incorporated them into a document I call

The Words I Long to Hear

I put down the quotation (you all know how I adore quotations!) and the name of the person who said it to me. If I have my act together, I note the date and the happenstance, too.

Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to read six pages of personal compliments? As I read them, I think about each person that spoke the words to me. Most are sweet things people I know said or wrote to me. But sometimes I get the kindest notes in e-mail from strangers that find help on my stitching website or here on this blog.

After saving and printing the document, I put the pages in sheet protectors and added them to a notebook I keep by my bed. On nights when I wake up troubled and can't get back to sleep, or on nights when I go to bed in tears, I can pick up my notebook and remember all the goodness in my life, and the wonderful folks that add a sprinkling of joy through the words they share.