As Mother’s Day approaches, many of us likely are making mental note to pick up a gift and a card for Mom, or perhaps to pay respects if she’s no longer in her physical body (that’s my mom above, enjoying lunch with me at one of her favorite indulgences, Steak N Shake, that we’ll likely partake again when I see her this week). But why wait for a holiday or some other “special” occasion to reach out to our mothers or anyone else near and dear?
All too often, we find ourselves thinking of a friend or loved one, and almost as quickly as the thought crossed our mind, we dissuade ourselves from reaching out because there are so many other pressing things that must be done right now. We almost subconsciously rationalize, “oh, I’ll call so and so later when I have more time to talk,” or “he’s probably too busy right now anyway.”
To build on the wise words of Thomas Jefferson, leave not for tomorrow what easily can be said today.
If we have words that are yearning to be spoken, they deserve to be given voice because the thought was important enough to cross our minds in the first place.
It takes little or no more time to act on our intuition than it does to make up excuses for why we’d be better off deferring until later, a “later” that may never happen.
I’ll always cherish a telephone conversation I had with my father when I was fourteen and he was in the hospital for what we’d thought were complications from chemotherapy. At the end of our chat, I’d told him, “I love you, Daddy.”
Out of the blue, I spoke these words to my father for the first time in my life. Ours was not a family that openly expressed feelings for one another, but something had nagged at me during the conversation that made it paramount for me to speak the unspeakable.
I’m forever grateful for the Divine guidance that made me use my voice that night. It turned out to be the only time I would ever tell my father that I love him while he was alive. His untimely death came just days later.
Whether it’s “I love you,” “thank you,” “I’m sorry,” or something else, tell that someone when you’re thinking of them. Don’t wait. Don’t hold back.
Every relationship is better for healthy, open communication of what’s on our hearts and minds.
