{"id":8074,"date":"2014-03-09T20:22:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2014-03-09T20:22:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:22:07","slug":"belated-thank-yous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/03\/belated-thank-yous.html","title":{"rendered":"belated thank-yous"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thank<\/a>I love writing letters. REAL letters, on stationery, with a pen or rollerball, and the (futile) art of keeping my handwriting legible.<\/p>\n

Thank-you notes are my favourite. Unfortunately, sometimes I’m forgetful (well, actually I’m often<\/em> forgetful!). And formal thank-yous — the kind you write higher-ups — are the worst, for me. Especially if I didn’t even attend the event. The flu hasn’t helped (N.B.: there really is<\/em> such a thing as ‘flu brain’).<\/p>\n

My father was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame last November. It’s a big deal, not just because he’s my father. Although certainly that’s the biggest part of it for me! But all the men and women inducted into the OMHoF are amazing: there’s not one who doesn’t deserve the space of book to tell the stories behind the names. \"DudleyJordanBritton\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I was my father’s official ‘sponsor’ — even though it took all FOUR of his daughters, a niece, a nephew, and several other friends of the family to put together his packet for submission — I needed to write the thank-you that paid tribute to our ‘Ambassador,’ a lovely Major Roland, who made the submission process and subsequent celebration much easier than they might have been.<\/p>\n

But the day of Daddy’s induction, I was in Birmingham, Alabama, at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombed in the Civil Rights Era, the church where four little girls in Sunday dress were murdered. I was part of the Oklahoma delegation to the Federation of State Humanities Councils, part of the NEH.<\/p>\n

\"Daddy<\/a>I’d like to think my dad would understand, as he often had to miss family events. But the conference wasn’t the end of it: then came Christmas, then health and travel and flu and… I finally wrote a VERY belated thank-you for all the wonderful help we received from Major Roland and others this past week. My beginner’s heart was heavy to begin with — it’s SO LATE! — but afterwards? I felt surprisingly good.<\/p>\n

Much of my life is like that — tying up loose ends that I’ve let fall through the many cracks in my days. If cracks let the light in, boy: is my life filled <\/em> with light! And of course, it is. Which almost certainly is the lesson I was supposed to learn months ago…!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love writing letters. REAL letters, on stationery, with a pen or rollerball, and the (futile) art of keeping my handwriting legible. Thank-you notes are my favourite. Unfortunately, sometimes I’m forgetful (well, actually I’m often forgetful!). And formal thank-yous — the kind you write higher-ups — are the worst, for me. Especially if I didn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,270],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,755,1195,1250,754,753],"class_list":["post-8074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-gratitude","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-colonel-dudley-britton","tag-family","tag-gratitude","tag-oklahoma-military-hall-of-fame","tag-thank-yous"],"yoast_head":"\nbelated thank-yous - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I love writing letters. REAL letters, on stationery, with a pen or rollerball, and the (futile) art of keeping my handwriting legible. 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