communicating gratitude

When someone asks you for advice, and they don't take it, do you ever wonder if they ever even considered it? Someone recently asked me for advice (twice) and she didn't follow through either time... at least not that I know of yet. Both times were regarding the same thing. I told her, "It seems like you know what you need to do, you're just trying to convince yourself to do it." Can't we all relate to this girl I gave advice to? It seems to me that we have all, at one moment or another, pushed something off for some reason. I could be talking about cutting hair, homework, telling someone the truth, or breaking up with someone. I remember when I dated before Mark, I knew if 'it was going to work' the moment I'd wake up after the first date. Only twice did I feel comfortable the morning after a first date. I'm just using this as an example to point out that no matter what we know we have to do, we always have a way of knowing for ourselves. I knew 'it wasn't going to work' if I woke up sick to my stomach because I was sick with worry. That was how I knew if the guy was good for me or not.

If you know you need an extra push in the right direction, usually you seek someone's advice, right? This girl who asked me for advice would not have come to me a second time if she didn't know what she needed to do. I don't think it has anything to do with lack of conscience because she has other people telling her what she should do; she just is pulling back like a donkey does when you tell it to go somewhere. Maybe she has good reason to, maybe she doesn't. But she knows what needs to happen.

Recently, I have been trying to be a better communicator. I have been trying to fluff-down what I tell people and just be more straight forward. I have been trying to communicate better with Mark, better with my sister, better with my friends. I sort of thought this blogging thing would possibly help, so we'll see. I owe this to Mauri - :) so thanks for pushing me in the right direction with me and my communication..you got me blogging!

I think gratitude is uderrrated. People say 'oh thanks' when really they need to scream "THANK YOU" and run to that person and sqeeze them like a bear. I think that when we are trying to be sincere about our thank yous, we need to think outside the box; the words 'thank you' have been over used and are too common place now. We need to act on the thank yous we give to people for their help. Hopefully I can better communicate my thank yous to everyone I owe. Perhaps this girl will realize that what she just needs to do is say thank you to the life she's been given and realize that she really doesn't have it all that bad. We all owe a thank you to someone somewhere.