SOLSC: Greeting Cards

Yesterday my husband and I went out running the usual "get ready for the work week" errands and one of the places that is always on my list is Target. One of our not-so-usual errands was to pick up a bridal shower gift for next weekend, as one of Johnathan's good friends is getting married at the end of April. Luckily the couple registered at Target and picking up some goodies was a snap!

I am passionate about gift giving. There is something about knowing that you have picked out just the right item for someone that you know they are going to love. This makes the holidays really exciting for me, but probably frustrating and exhausting for Johnathan, as I will shop over and over for the same person until I find the gift for them. The rest of the year I have this other problem: greeting cards.

I'm going to go ahead and attribute (blame) my addiction to greeting cards on my addiction to the written word. I know there are lots of much more gifted wordsmiths than myself, but not just anyone writes just the right greeting card, issuing a challenge to me year-round. What draws me to them, mostly, is the blank space on the left side when the card is open: that's where I get to do my own wordsmith-ing. I can fill up that blank side with all kinds of sap!

What began as a grab a shower gift (now it still had to be the right one) run to Target became me reading card after card. I found a bridal card that is so tongue-in-cheek like me, then I found a card to send to my brother and his wife congratulating them on their new house (I didn't even know such a card existed), then I found the sweetest little card for my friends who just had a baby that I wanted to include with the Welcome to the World gifts I have stocked up to take when I see them this weekend, and THEN I found a perfect card for one of my dearest friends...just because.

I have always fancied myself a (however amateur) writer, and greeting cards have acted as a spark for me to put pen to paper (or cardstock) for years. When I write, I'm giving part of myself away to the person who ultimately reads my words, and that is not a responsibility I take lightly, just as I value giving the right gift and the right card. Sometimes, it's much more important that we give the right words.