You! You are magnificent and special!

Julia and I were talking a couple of days ago, and she mentioned something which, this morning, triggered in me a desire to capture here the essence of what she said.

I had just gotten home from work, and as is often the case, our little boy dachshund wanted the chance to chase a chew toy down the hall a couple of times. That's pretty much his limit: if he goes after the toy twice, I know he has had enough of that game and let him go back to relaxing in his mom's office.

Each time he would bring the toy back, both Julia and I would praise him as if he had just found a combination miracle which cured all disease and made all humanity get along forever.

Once he was done retrieving, she said, "How cool would it be if someone would praise us that way for all the normal things we do in life? What if, when you got to work, people were waiting to praise you with a huge smile on their faces, just for showing up? What if, when you stopped for a red light driving home that day, someone 'Wooohooo!!'ed you for stopping when you were supposed to?"

While we just laughed at the time and went on about our end-of-the-workday routine, the idea stuck with me.

I don't propose the sort of out-of-proportion praise we talked about, but what if we all made the effort to say 'thanks' only two or three times a day more often than we already do?

From a relationship standpoint, are there chores or tasks or favors your partner takes on for you which you have come to take for granted? Can you find the places in your daily life where an extra, heartfelt 'thanks!' would fit? If you can, then express it in the moment. If you cannot, then step back and consider where you have gone astray. We all have huge areas where we can be in gratitude, and it is part of our sacred journey to acknowledge them. And, it serves the person in gratitude every bit as much to say thank you, as it does the person to whom it is said!

In the spirit of this idea, I wish to thank my beloved wife, Julia, for her generous praise (and honest appraisal, as I am a nut) in her post here yesterday.

Thank you, Julia, who married a nut and sticks it out anyway!