Mothers. How do you express eternal gratitude to someone on one day of the year? It seems sort of insignificant, doesn’t it?
The older I get, the more I struggle with gift ideas for my mother. Yet, I know that, for my mother at least, what she really values is the gift of my time. Fleeting time from her full-time working, part-time blogger, all the time parent, daughter.
Whether you live next door to your mother, or thousands of miles away, this is a unique gift of time that will last through the entire year.
Gather all of your supplies: stationery, envelopes, pens, and stamps. Set aside a couple of hours. Then write. Short notes, long notes. Share your words of thanks, words of wisdom, words of inspiration. Whatever suits your own personal relationship with your mother (after all, we are all different, aren’t we?) I recommend writing twelve notes in total (one for each month of the year), then addressing and stamping all of the envelopes in advance.
This makes things easier, because let’s face it, we all have good intentions, but this is exactly the type of project/commitment that gets dropped after a couple of months if you don’t plan in advance.
Mail the first envelope for Mother’s Day and include a note explaining your intentions (or let your monthly notes be a surprise). Set a reminder in your calendar for the first of each month thereafter and pop your notes in the mail accordingly.
Meet Alison
Alison Butler writes The Petit Cadeau, a weekly blog about thoughtful gifting.
She loves snail mail, handmade gifts, and tea.
