For this week’s #3ThingsThursday, hosted by Pink Chai, The Write Balance and Love Laugh Mirch, my mood is a little sombre. I’m going to keep it short and, hopefully, sweet. #3ThingsThursday is when bloggers share some things from their world that have come up for them in the past week. If you’d like to join in, please visit any of the hosts’ websites and add your link. Even if you don’t want to add your link, have a visit anyway. It’s always neat to see what everyone’s up to.

1. I just wrote a goodbye/thank you letter to a friend who is receiving palliative care and may only be with us a few weeks. Her wishes are that visitors be limited, but a mutual friend told me a letter would be ok when I asked. I don’t know if you’ve ever had to do that before. It’s not something you ever look forward to doing, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity to say the things you may never have thought to say. It’s an opportunity to let someone know that you still hold in your heart all the seemingly insignificant moments you shared. It’s a chance to say thank you for crossing your path and leaving little bits and pieces of themselves with you, when you didn’t even realize they were doing that. I don’t wish this situation on anyone – having to say goodbye – but we have all been there at some point, or will in the future. But may I suggest not waiting till the end to say these things?

2. Right before I wrote that letter, I wrote another one which will be read in my daughter’s class today. My daughter is the ‘person of the week’ which means that she has had the opportunity to share with her class all the things that make her unique. Today, as her parents, her dad and I get to do the same – but from our point of view. It’s hard to sum up in a letter that will be read to 7 and 8 year olds all the things I feel about my first born child. She is my greatest teacher, my biggest cheerleader, my mirror, and the catalyst for some of the most amazing changes in my life. I kept it short, sweet and not too sappy (which was a challenge for me!).

3. Letters to my children – this was a project I started a long time ago and wish I had kept up, but I will have to get back to it because it’s quite possibly one of the loveliest ideas I have ever had. I have a file on my computer called Letters to Empathy which contains some notes to my older daughter (whose name means Empathy), and another file of notes called Letters to a Respectable Man (yes, my son’s name means respectable man – I don’t choose my kids’ names lightly!). I have yet to start a file called Letters to the Wind for my little Alyzeh, but I will. This project means a lot to me and I need to carve out the time to keep it up as regularly as I can. Some things are better not saving for last.

Do you have a letter to write?