Things Unsaid

I often marvel at the words spoken at funerals for those who have passed on and wonder if those things were left unsaid in their life. Recently, I wrote an evaluation for a teacher of mine and sent it in anonymously as I was instructed. However, I wondered if maybe this teacher could use a pick-me-up before the quarter was over and I wanted him to know it was from me. I didn't want the way he has impacted my learning experience to go unsaid or to to be said after the fact. So I went ahead and sent it to him in an email.



Coincidentally, that very same day, I received note from a friend of mine at the Institute...

Dear Emily,

...You've shared many wise words with me this year that I truly appreciate, about your family, in Tuesday night class, and most of all of being a daughter of God.

I look at you and your relationship with your husband and family, and see it as a wonderful goal for my own future. Really, we are blessed to be around you! It gives me courage to see a strong, contemporary, eternal marriage of such equality and respect between you and your husband and your children.

I can't express this well, but I am relieved and encouraged to see a woman of such an independent spirit in a loving family that supports you as you love and support them. It gives me courage to go forth in faith!

I chose to share this not to glorify myself in any way but to show that it does much more good to say things now, in the present. I am grateful this friend of mine told me about the effect I had on her. If she didn't tell me, I would never have known.

"Kind words not only lift our spirits in the moment they are given, but they can linger with us over the years." -- Joseph B. Wirthlin

Don't wait until after the fact.