Bleary eyed and tired, facing what I knew was going to be a long, tough day at work, I made my way down the stairs to the our kitchen. Each evening my bride of 20 years lovingly prepares the morning coffee in the old percolator from 1958 that had been a wedding gift to my parents.  Amazingly it still works flawlessly after 65 years. I guess it’s true – they don’t make things like they used to. We favor the old percolator over any of the newfangled brewing contraptions we’ve owned because, well – it just makes better coffee. We think so anyway. But this isn’t about coffee…
What I then saw sitting on the counter next to the pot completely changed my attitude and reshaped the likely course of my day. It was a hand written note that she had left for me that read, “Always and All Ways…I Love You!
In an instant I realized that as she was preparing the coffee the previous night, she had taken what was in her heart, committed it to paper, and left it for me. While this may seem a small thing, it is, in fact, a monumental thing in just about every way I can think of. Everything in me shifted. My perspective on the day, my energy level, and my motivation to do my best work because she and our clients deserve nothing less.
So often we come to believe that only the big gestures, a gift, a trip, a dinner out, these sorts of things can really move the emotional needle but nothing could be further from the truth. The simple fact that she left her love for me on a small piece of paper next to the the coffee pot spoke volumes that little else could have matched. I love her for that.
I love her Always and All Ways for that.
People say it’s the little things that matter and in the course of 24 crowded and busy hours a day, we have literally scores of opportunities and an unlimited number of ways to say, I love you, I appreciate you, You matter to me, You are everything to me.
Life is shorter that any of us realize and we only get each day the once. These small acts of love and kindness can make a huge difference in how we experience those days. The effect spills over into so many other areas of not only our own lives, but the lives of others that we engage with that is proximately incalculable.
Leave the note, find the poem and share it, help with the chore, bring home the flowers. Make it a mission to constantly find new and creative ways to remind that special someone that they are everything to you – Always and All Ways. Your life will change in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
Check out the Happiness 2.0 Podcast – https://podcast.edwardgdunn.com/
