Greetings - beyond Hallmark

What do you do with the cards you get on the holidays or special occasions? How many cards or notes have you gotten over the years - and how do you decide which ones you keep? How many trees have been killed in order to tell you hi, get well, thinking of you, congratulations and best wishes?

I started thinking about this when my husband got two notes within the same week that meant a lot to him. At this stage in his career, confirmation about his ideas and thoughts tend to give him energy and a zest for what he does. He is passionate about community development and neighborhood revitalization, and he translates ideas into actions and plans. 12 years ago a note would not have mattered.

As we got ready for a yard sale recently, I found the cards my co-workers gave to me when I decided to stay home with my first child. It was an easy decision but hard to put into practice - those challenges remain as we try to balance raising a family with professional and financial obligations. It was clear to me that I kept the cards at the time to remind me about my choice and my professional life - sometimes those days seem so far behind. I'm deciding if I'll put them in a scrapbook ,just keep an envelope or release them because our lives are so different now.

I interviewed for Hallmark so I have a lingering fascination with the company. I have fond memories of how they treated their candidates and I'm still aware that the Hallmark brand is one that cherishes things that I find important. The most important lesson for me is that encouragement is so powerful. There are times when I send cards, notes, letters and the like - and wonder if they really matter at all. Then there are other times that people share how powerful a simple gesture was or they let me know that my card is one that they have kept over the years. My cousin Carolyn used to keep my Christmas cards and I always remember wanting to make sure hers arrived on time, because she actually read it and cared. The power of personal touch!

I love email for its quick nature, but I'm not really saving those exchanges as keepsakes. I have cards from my mothers friends, my great grandmother, family members that are no longer with us, friends who have been so important to my life - I have a boat load of physical memories that last longer than the motivation behind the card. I hope in the environment of the everyday "hit send" messages, text messages, and phones on our hips - we don't lose the basic art of touching lives - with keepsakes that last in combination with the way we communicate today.