Write a NICE letter! :)

Okay, so I’m on vacation. I know, crazy, right? I actually MADE it on one of my vacations. And I’m enjoying myself immensely. I’ll have plenty more to post about when I get home, but for now, I didn’t want to let this slip by. On Wednesday, Veronica wrote this for SPP. She, like most of us, had seen the terrible letter that was slipped under the door of an autistic person. And she, like all of us, was completely appalled by it. So to try and even out the good versus the bad in the universe, has challenged everyone to write a NICE letter. Sure, it won’t make the bad people stop doing bad things, but flooding the world with a little niceness surely can’t hurt, right? Right.

Here’s the letter that I’m going to be sending out when I get home. (Don’t worry, I’ll share the reason for the letter in a post next week when I recap my trip, lol)

August 23, 2013

To the Manager of Klaben Ford:

Hello, my name is Amanda Buckland, and I’d like to tell you a little about the experience I had last week with your service department. I am from Michigan, and was driving to Virginia on Tuesday, when my car (a 2009 Ford Focus) suddenly lost power and the wrench light came on. I was 300 miles from home and had no idea what to do. Through the assistance of a friend, I was able to locate your service center and managed to get my car to you.

Even though they were very busy, my car was immediately taken back for the diagnostic test. In the meantime, the guys in the front of the service department were more than friendly, and took very good care of me. I’d been rather shaken up and they managed not only to calm me down but to actually make me laugh. The diagnostic came back without a code error, so it was recommended that the Mass Airflow Sensor be cleaned, and they could get me back on the road that night. They did inform me that there was a possibility that it was something more serious, but since there was no error code, they determined that it was safe for me to continue on my way.

I made it about 15 miles out of town and my car quit again. I called the service department back and told them, and asked them to please order the part for me, since I was in the same position as earlier. Jeff, the gentleman I dealt with the most, told me to bring the car in first thing in the morning, they would make a special run to get my part (since it was 6pm, and the parts department was already closed). He apologized profusely even though it was no fault of his, or your service department.

I arrived at the dealership at 9am Wednesday morning. They took the car right back to start taking everything apart so that the minute the part arrived, they could put it on and send me on my way. In the meantime, one of the guys in the service center offered to run me down to the mall so that I didn’t have to sit in the repair center all morning. I declined the offer, since I’d brought my laptop and intended to do some work. When I told them that’s what I’d planned on doing, I was offered use of one of their meeting tables so that I could work in comfort and privacy.

I apologize for not remembering anyone’s name other than Jeff, but EVERYONE that I encountered was extremely friendly and most helpful. Not one person walked by me without asking how I was or if there was anything they could do/get for me. My car was fixed in a very timely manner, the prices were reasonable, and I have since arrived safely at my destination.

This was a time when I could have been completely taken advantage of. I am a woman traveling on my own with a limited amount of car knowledge. They could have told me that anything under the sun was wrong with the car, and I would have believed them. Instead, they treated me very well, understood my situation, and tried to get me back on the road with as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

The way I was treated was more than anything I would have expected out of even my hometown dealership. I fully intend (and I informed them of this) to return to your dealership in the spring, when I am ready to purchase a new car. It will be a 5 hour drive from where I will be living, but it will be worth every minute to be able to deal with your company and the people you employ again.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I’m not usually a letter-writer, but I was incredibly impressed by your staff and felt that you needed to know.

Amanda Buckland

Port Huron, MI

Veronica has created a special hashtag for this endeavor (#writeaniceletter), and I think it would be really cool if we could all turn this in to a thing. Write your letter – it doesn’t have to be anything huge, even just a few lines – send it to someone, and then blog about it, tweet about it, Facebook about it … whatever it is that you do, so that we can keep this chain going.

My Dad, My Hero

In grade school, one of the most common things teachers ask you to write about is your hero. All of the boys list their favorite athlete, and all of the girls pick one of their parents, typically their father. This assignment was always a little weird to me. I never knew who to put down. I didn’t really follow sports, and I never felt like anything my parents did was exciting enough to make them a hero. I always felt bad about thinking that, but as a kid, you have these grand illusions of what a hero should be. I usually ended up going with my dad because that’s what everyone else did, and I didn’t want to be left out. The next part was even harder. The teacher always asked WHY. So, I would write down something like “because he spends time with me”. It always felt really lame, because I thought those were things that every dad did, and that they were nothing terribly special.

Wrong.

Those types of things are EXACTLY what makes him a hero. The normal everyday stuff that everyone takes for granted as a kid is actually pretty special. So I’ve decided, in honor of today, and of my dad in general, I am going to re-do this childhood assignment.

The answer is my dad, beyond a shadow of a doubt. For SO many reasons. My 5^th grade answer of “because he spends time with me” still stands, but with much more clarity and wisdom. I always knew that my dad worked, and worked hard. But what I didn’t realize until I was much older was that he and my mom made a LOT of sacrifices to give Alex and I what we had. When he wasn’t working, he was spending time with us. But it was so much more than what it seemed as a child. Time spent with him weeding the garden or picking vegetables wasn’t work. Looking back, it’s actually one of my fondest memories. He was constantly talking, teaching and I walked away with a vast knowledge of gardening. Time spent watching him take photos and listening to him talk about stuff that I didn’t (at the time) understand led to a deep love for photography, which is apparent in my everyday life. Time spent sitting next to him, watching the birds at the feeders was more than a way to pass a Sunday. He would identify every bird as it flew to the feeder and tell me about each one. Now, I can identify most birds by closing my eyes and listening to their song. Handing him nails while he built our new deck wasn’t just another task. I learned the proper way to measure and cut boards, learned about the proper supports for structures, and if I really needed to, I could probably build my own deck. All of the time I spent in the kitchen with him was more than cutting up vegetables and doing chores. Not only was I learning how to cook, but I was learning about responsibility and cleaning up after myself. The list goes on and on. Every seemingly mundane thing was actually far more significant. Every minute he spent with us was either imparting his vast knowledge or building character. Or both. At 10, I thought those most of those things seemed kind of boring. At 30, I know all of those things are pretty damned special.

First taste of watermelon 🙂

When tragedy struck a few years ago and I had no idea what to do with myself, once again, there was my dad. He opened his home to me and helped me begin to rebuild my life. It was then that all of this started to become clear to me. Al of the lessons from my childhood came crashing back through as we spent countless sleepless nights on the couch, just talking. Sharing more wisdom, and rebuilding character. He picked me up, dusted me off, and set me back on the right path. Seems so simple, right? Seems like something that any dad would do? Maybe, but to me, it made a world of difference, and I realized then that my dad was truly my hero. Who knows where I’d be today without him.

My Wedding Day

In loving memory of my dad, Gary Albright, who passed away three years ago today. I love you, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss you.

Moments like these are beyond special ❤

Never take the simple moments for granted.

Always with a camera in hand 🙂

So happy – muskie fishing 🙂

What Does A Tree Do When It Stops Growing?

I’d had a post started based around something that my boss said to me one day. We were at lunch, having a pretty intense conversation about life and the direction that my path is taking me. I’d been unsure about a lot things, for a lot of reasons. He knew this, and looked at me and asked quite simply,

“What does a tree do when it stops growing?”

It stopped me in my tracks. I remember giving him a weird look until it hit me. I looked up at him and said quietly, “It dies?”. He nodded. I sat back and thought about it a bit more, and it made sense to me. I knew then that I wanted to base a blog post around that because it seemed very profound to me. But I’ve been stuck.

The other day, I was scrolling through my blog feed, and came across this post from Jeff over at Every Day Power Blog. I think this says it better than anything I could possibly say. One step further, the metaphor used here is PERFECT for my life, since I’m a florist, lol.

Jeff wrote:

“We will all reach the day where we have to decide between the risk of doing what we have always done or the risk of doing something we never dreamed we were capable of. We will all have to decide between the risk of settling and playing it safe with the risk of seeing what we are truly made of.

If we look at the laws of nature along with what this quote art image is alluding to – if the flower wanted to, it could have stopped at the bud, since it  was already a foot or so out of the soil! At that point the flower could have said, “I’m Good, I need to go no further!” But that’s not what flowers do! If you look at what a flower does – regardless of where it’s planted, it will attract the necessary resources to it, with its values and beliefs..oops, I MEAN ROOTS! After it attracts the resources, it breaks the line of soil and rises to the sun. Then, after it seems to have reached it’s full height and potential, it BLOOMS! And it doesn’t just bloom once, it does year after year, after year! Season after season! Not to mention the flower will share it’s seeds of knowledge and abundance to anyone willing to pick them up!

Who knew, we could learn so much from a flower!

So! With that said! I ask: Have you bloomed? What are you waiting for you?”

Reading this was a blend of a slap across the face and a lightbulb turning on. It was almost like he’d written it directly to me. Settling and playing it safe is no longer an option for me. It’s time to make the leap, and to quote Jeff directly, see what I’m truly made of. Like the flower who decided that it needed to be more than a bud poking up into the sky, I also need to keep going, to continue growing, and find out what I’m meant to be. A lot of you already know this, but for those of you who don’t, my path is leading me away from Michigan. I’m most likely headed for Virginia by the end of the year, and Sean and I are going to go full time (or as close to full time as we can get) with SPP. I’m really excited, and really cannot wait for this change. I’ve felt like I’ve been losing myself for a long time, and this is going to give me the chance to find myself again. I couldn’t be happier.

Counting Your Blessings – A Challenge for All of You

On the blog over at SPP this week, Veronica wrote about how important it is to count your blessings, especially when times seem dark. And then she challenged not only our readers, but specifically called Sean and I out to take part as well. Challenge accepted. J

It was kind of funny because she came to me, looking for potential blog topics. I tossed a few her way, and this is the one she chose. So very timely! This week has been especially stressful for me for a number of reasons, and I’ve been feeling pretty down. You know that feeling, where you feel like nothing is going right and you’re not sure how things are ever going to go right again. (I know they always DO, but it doesn’t always feel that way). Yep, that’s been my week. We’re going to ignore the fact that it’s only Wednesday.

So here goes, a list of my blessings:

1. I have a home. It’s small, and I complain about my neighbors, but I’m pretty blessed to have a comfortable home that fits my needs.

2. I have an amazing family, especially these two. This is my brother Alex and his girlfriend, Michelle, and we’re all super close. I really don’t know what I’d do without them most days. They’ve been there for me through thick and   thin, and even as I write this, my brother is detailing my car. Why? Because he wants to. He’s pretty awesome like that.

3. I have a job. I might complain about it sometimes, but it’s definitely one of my bigger blessings, and probably should have been mentioned before #3. I’ve been here for 13 years, my entire adult life. We are more than just coworkers, and more than just friends. We are family, and like my real family, we’ve seen our shares of ups and downs through the year, but we always stick by each other. My bosses are incredible, and more like parents than bosses. What more could a person ask for? Oh yeah .. that’s right. I get to spend my day around beautiful flowers. Amazing, right?

4. I’m in fairly good health. I stumbled a little bit earlier this year when I had to have my gallbladder removed, and I’m still adjusting to that, but for the most part, I’m pretty healthy. If you don’t count the fact that I develop a sinus infection from hell every time I book an airline ticket. Seriously, body, get a grip. Vacations are a GOOD thing, really.

5. I have AMAZING friends. Like…you don’t even know. Be jealous. Everyone should have the awesome support that I do. I don’t know what I’d do without my girls in my life. No matter what’s going on, or how long its been since we’ve seen each other, when one of us has an issue, we’re all there, no questions asked. That’s pretty damn cool.

6. This guy, right here. Sean. They say that everyone comes into your life for a reason, and I firmly believe that. Such an odd and random chain of events brought us together, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Not only is he one of my closest friends, but he’s a killer photographer and I’m proud to be joining him and building SPP into something truly amazing. He also should have been listed somewhere before #6, but I guess I was saving the best for last. I’m really, really blessed to be on the path that we’re creating for ourselves. 🙂

So .. when all seems dark and you think that life just isn’t gonna get better, take a few minutes to remember all the ways you’re still blessed. Better yet .. right now, take a few minutes and think about all the ways you’ve been blessed. Leave your list in the comments, and then pass this along. Challenge your friends to count their blessings as well. The world just might be a little happier if we all took the time to do this.