A Not So Little “Thank You”

If you have been a regular visitor to Two Chums for any length of time, you know how important we believe that gratitude is to our lives.  A few weeks ago I was thrilled to find that the message of gratitude that has been impressed on the “littles” in our family, showed up in my 7 year old granddaughter, Evangeline.

We had the occasion to stay at a lovely, old, historic hotel, The Langham, in Pasadena, California.  Evangeline took it upon herself to write a “thank you” note to the hotel and then brought it to me, to ask me to give it to the hotel.

In case you are having trouble reading her note, it says:

“Dear Langham,

Thank you for letting my family and me stay at your hotel.
From Evie to you.
Oh and I love my room”

It is a beautiful and grand old hotel and we had a wonderful stay, so it would be no wonder she would feel thankful to stay there.  But here’s what I think is the best part of this story…Evangeline wrote this note just moments after she arrived, NOT after her stay as she was about to leave.  She arrived with gratitude in her little heart and didn’t wait to express it.

I was so touched that without hesitation I immediately took her note to the front desk and dropped it off explaining who had written it.  Our family then all left shortly to go out to dinner.  The next morning I regretted not having taken a photo of the note.  I went back to the front desk to ask if by any chance they still had it.  As I approached I realized the staff at the desk was not the same as the day before when I dropped it off.  I asked anyway, not too hopeful that anyone would have held on to the note of an unknown child, or that even if it was still there somewhere, the people now working at the front desk would know anything about it or what I was asking about.

To my delight and absolute surprise,  I had barely mentioned that my granddaughter had written a note to the hotel the day before when the young ladies and gentlemen working there lit up with huge smiles and one of them said,  “Oh we loved that note. It’s on the bulletin board in our office.  It was so sweet and encouraged all of us so much!  Please tell her how much we appreciate it.”  She ran to the office and returned quickly to let me take a photo and then disappeared just as quickly to take it back to the office again and back to the bulletin board.

There were two big lessons in this whole experience that stood out to me.  Firstly, while gratitude can often be our response after we experience something good, how many times would our life experiences be even better if at the outset, like Evie, our first action was to express our gratitude.

Secondly, I learned never to underestimate the power of gratitude, even that, or maybe especially that, of a child.  I have never seen that kind of delight on the faces of people who never even met the author of a note of thanks. So when it comes to children writing “thank you” notes, in the words of Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Teach your children well”.