Gratitude is meant to be shared

After I had written about a dozen letters of gratitude, early on in this life-changing habit, I commissioned some custom stationery. This helped me communicate my feelings about gratitude in a very direct fashion.

When an individual would receive a letter of gratitude from me, the first thing they would see would be a quote from the author, William Arthur Ward. It stated: “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

It’s a wonderful expression, and nicely encapsulates my feeling about proactive gratitude. I have sent out well in excess of 200 letters with this very insightful quote printed on the back side of the letter. However, I recently came across another quote which expresses the same sentiment a bit more concisely. It’s from the author Gertrude Stein, and states, very simply, “silent gratitude isn’t much use to anybody.”

The point is simply this: tens of millions of individuals, probably hundreds of millions worldwide, feel deep gratitude towards another person or many other individuals. However, most people are reluctant to express this gratitude. For whatever reason, chalk it up to human nature, they keep it to themselves.

Gratitude is like a fine wine, or a clever joke. It’s meant to be shared! The William Arthur Ward quotation has served me in good stead for a decade. But when it comes time to reprint my stationery, I might switch things up and use the wise words of Gertrude Stein as a change of pace.