Also on my blog.
I appreciate your honesty.
I appreciate your quiet support and your vocal critiques.
I appreciate your non-conformity.
I appreciate your silent love.
I appreciate your determination.
I appreciate your patience.
I appreciate your forgiveness.
I appreciate your sharing your life with me.
I found myself telling my husband all of these things in front of strangers a couple of weeks ago. It was part of a structured exercise to take two minutes to put in words what you appreciated about the people in the room. It was hard to “appreciate” the folks we had met just an hour ago. But it was even harder to open up and appreciate my significant other in public.
It’s difficult to verbally acknowledge all that a person means to you. We have been together nine years but I don’t remember any time where we took two minutes to spell out what we really appreciated about one another. We say “I love you” to encompass all those feelings of appreciation. We give each other greeting cards on special occasions. We write poems. Letters. E-mails. But there’s something so different about looking a person in their eye and telling them you appreciate something specific about them. And even though it may seem so, there was nothing artificial about it.
For those two minutes, I could speak from my heart. For those two minutes, he was the center of my world. It was about enjoying him. Acknowledging the little and big ways he makes a difference by being who he is. Admiring, applauding, respecting, celebrating him. It was about forgetting everything else and focusing on the goodness in this human being I call my best friend.
I had goosebumps all over when he got his two minutes to appreciate me. I hadn’t heard him say those things out loud … ever. It made me tear up because even though I “knew” what I meant to him, it was nice to hear it. And it was a humbling experience.
I felt blessed. I felt grateful. I felt loved.
It taught me that I don’t have to wait for a special occasion to come around to express my gratitude. It reminded me of the wonderful person he is in his ordinary ways on an ordinary day. It gave me pause.
Gestures are great, but saying the actual words sometimes means so much more. Try it sometime.
4 comments:
I appreciate your post. I really like the idea to not only profess what you admire about those you love, but to vocalize it publically is pretty cool too. Thanks!
Its quite funny (and nice) that I came across this post today. Only this morning, I was standing in the hallway calling out to my partner, he walked in and asked 'What have I done?'. Instead, I stood there and told him how incredibly lucky I was to have him, and how much I adored him, and appreciated everything he was doing to help me. The gratitude in his eyes was inexplicable, and I too made a note to myself that I didnt need Valentines Day or Anniversary's to let him know next time.
I worry sometimes in our high tech, texting, emailing and techno world that the human voice saying 'I appreciate you' will be lost. It is important, but easy to just leave a note, but the voice, oh the power of the human voice. The same voice that comes through in your writing. Thank you.
What a lovely post. There is definately something remarkable about really looking into a persons eyes and telling them their value to us.
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