Can You Wear Out "Thank you"?

I had a pretty extreme reason to express thanks a couple weeks ago. I was one of six finalists in the My Book Therapy Frasier writing contest. Tears came to my eyes when I found out the news and my heart quickened in thanksgiving when the congratulations started rolling in.

And I could say was thank you. I couldn't think of a single solitary thing else to say. No clever word phrasing, so special verbs and nouns to speak what was on my heart, because it truly was an outpouring of love.

So I said Thank You.

Over and over and over and over again.

Can you wear out those two words? Have they become a cliched, trite way of expressing our emotions? Our gratitude? Our depth of appreciation?

My mom was recently given a thank you note recently "though this note is late, it does not diminish the meaning of my thanks.

That is what saying Thank You is all about. It's not the words, it's how we say the words. Do we say them with offhandedness, or do we pour our heart into those two words? Do we take the time to write a note in our own hand to express our gratitude? Do we show with our actions that the words from our lips are the overflow of our heart?

You can't wear a hole in Thank You like a pair of ratty jeans. You can't diminish the value of those words, UNLESS you stop believing in what they represent.

Gratitude, thankfulness, appreciation. Let those two words come from your heart with all the love and meaning you can put behind them. They are not to be trifled with, but never, never, never be stingy in expressing them for fear of being viewed as a miser. 

** Photo courtesy of Flickr