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Monday, March 7, 2011

Monday Mimisms ~ Mailbox Birds and Other Blessings

I've been thinking about the concept of thankfulness this weekend. Not so much "gratitude" as is popularly touted these days, and rightly so, but thankfulness. I think there's a difference. For instance, to say you "owe someone a debt of gratitude" is too much like a debt.
Not much joy.
To say you are thankful conveys a sense of fullness as opposed to lack.
Make sense?

Semantics. Connotations. Connections.

I consider this totally Craig Crawford's fault. He posted a take-no-prisoners article on the subject of teachers this weekend and asked his readers to write tributes to their favorite teachers in his comment section. I did and so did over 200 others (well, there was some rancor in there as well). It started me thinking about people I need to thank in my life. If you don't mind I think I'll take a moment to thank a few people and things. And I would like to leave out those I am obligated to thank thank you very much. I will try to tuck the snark away in a less noticeable corner of my mind and not pull it out until I'm done thanking things.

Ahem. I would like to thank anyone reading who is thinking by now "She just wrote 3 whole paragraphs telling me what she is going to write and why or why not she is maybe not going to write it." Thank you for not saying that out loud.

I'd like to thank all you grammar scholars for not noticing that I should have used finished instead of done in the 4th paragraph above and maybe not even "that" in this sentence. And that sometimes I start a sentence with and and sometimes my sentences aren't sentences at all. I like it. You get the conversation in my head that way. I get no migraine.

I would like to thank those who read and never comment, some for years, everyday everyday everyday. I wonder what it is that keeps them coming back when apparently they are not speaking to me. Nonetheless, I am thankful for your presence here and hope I say something someday that will unplug the comment cork. If not, carry on and notice the Queen wave K?



I would like to thank my garbage man, who never complains that I don't separate the recyclables properly. I know I should but at times the milk jugs mix in with the biodegradable.

Is that such a crime?

The postal carrier who has only complained once that there's a bird nest in my mailbox. 



And the lunch lady at work who lets me get extra crackers and honey mustard dip for afternoon snack like I'm her child or something and never makes me pay.  Oh! And the kind man who pumps my gas with a smile (I do not pump my own gas. No. Just no) who looks after my tire pressure even when I don't notice. He doesn't have to do that. He doesn't make a penny. And he always says, "Now you be careful today out there on the road, Young Lady!"  I think I love him. The fact that he calls me that is reason enough to pay extra for gas pumping.

Thank you to my latest adventure dating disaster with Mr. Cuteness that ended this weekend with a lengthy and sorrowful apology for deciding to give it one more go with the old ex-girlfriend waiting in the wings. I would like to thank her for contacting him on his birthday. You saved me from a future of fickle-minded wishy washy hurt. That must have been some helluva birthday card. (**hat tip email friend for that line**) And to think I convinced you to get your flu shot. She should thank ME.
We'll always have the flu though...can she say that?
No. I didn't think so.

Which leads to me to wonder if there are people we really should never thank in the first place. Do we need to thank people in our past for being in our past? Don't you think that's a sarcastic backhanded compliment? Do we really need to thank people who caused us pain just so we can remind them of it? And what's worse, elevating ourselves above blame in order to stand in judgment of them ? I've been guilty of that at times in my pencil skirt way. It was wrong.


But here's what is not wrong: Saying what you need to say when you need to say it.
Never let it be said I didn't do that.
That is my greatest fear.



Maybe tomorrow I'll even get the bird out of the mailbox.


Photo images Public Domain or property of Mimi Lenox


16 comments:

nelson said...

To notice the people around you who are making small acts of kindness - that is sweet! Sometimes we tend to take them for granted.

Charles Gramlich said...

But I bet the bird is thankful for a nice warm place to keep her nest.

Mimi Lenox said...

Nelson - We do take many things for granted,yes.

Mimi Lenox said...

Charles - I know. That's why I just gather my mail and shut the door....I can't do it. Of course the straw in my mail is another story.

Christine said...

I liked this post. All of it. Right down to the nest in the mailbox.

Mimi Lenox said...

Thank you dear Christine....

Durward Discussion said...

Quite often I do feel like thanking people in my past if only because I needed to make a mistake in order to be or do something else that I wouldn't have done or been if that person hadn't caused a necessary change.

Did that make sense? Hope so. Loved your column today.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Our garbageman would refuse to take it if it weasn't separated

Ferd said...

THANK YOU for that, Mimi!
As you know, I work at minimizing "wanting" and maximizing gratitude. I appreciate reminders of that whenever and wherever I can, like in this post.

Travis Cody said...

But where will the bird go if you make it leave a nice safe mailbox?

Anonymous said...

I think I love the man who pumps your gas too ;)

Mimi Lenox said...

Jamie - Thank you and also for the shout out on Trailmix today. Every time you do that I get visitors galore. You are my personal cheerleader. Yay!

"...if that person hadn't caused a necessary change."
YEP. You do have a VALID point.

Mimi Lenox said...

Jean-Luc - But you're not wearing a pencil skirt....ahem.

Mimi Lenox said...

Ferd - I consider you to be the King of Gratitude in the Blogosphere. You have made an impression on me for sure!

Mimi Lenox said...

Travis - That is why it is still there....I can't do it.

Mimi Lenox said...

Dawn - He is really a sweetheart of a man. He is always glad to see me and smiles so big...even though when it's cold outside, even when I need my windshield washed, even when I whine and complain about something in my car....the other day he wouldn't let me leave until he'd checked my tires again.
Lovely man.

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