Yesterday I received a letter...and another.

Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from my precious little brother and another from my roommate. They were simplest of letters, but the kind of words that wrapped me up in a cozy blanket on a snowy day, filled my mug with foamy hot chocolate and curled up next to me, reminding me how loved I am.  

It reminded me of how often I forget to tell people how thankful I am for them. For the last couple years I feel like I have been dancing on the finest storms of the sea, but only recently looked back and saw how many faces were rowing the boat alongside me. Now that the sun has dried up my drenched ideas of who I thought I needed to be, I can clearly and confidently see I would not have made it where I am without your help. 

So Today.

As I mix up colorful paints and radiantly glow inside at how much I love what I do, I paint for each and every person who has sent me a word of encouragement, or believed in my talents before I did.

I want you to know I do what I do, not for my own self-glory or satisfaction, but because I owe it to you to dauntlessly embrace my gifts and live without fear of the world. I owe it to each of you, to boldly be who I was created to be, obey what has been given to me and give you permission to do the same. I owe it to you to remind you of your own greatness. 

Do that.

Go and give people a warm glow of appreciation and you will start to notice their feet cheerfully moving to the rhythm of the music they were created to hear. It is now September, as the winds start to blow and you find yourself doing a lot more sitting than usual, turn off your phone every once in awhile, pick up a pen and write a letter to someone who doesn't know how much you appreciate them.

That is how you change the world.


"P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" once a day. "

-Ronald Reagan

Jennie Pitts
