Thank you Notes

The Papery Willow also makes handcrafted stationery for any occasion. It is so important to give thanks, especially if you are conducting business you should always send a Thank you card. In today's electronic world we seem to miss the intimacy of relationships, we no longer pick up the phone, and we no longer write letters or send cards, or if we do it is via email, and believe it or not some people send invitations via email or use other sites to do so.
Take the time and send a card, I promise the person who receives it will feel special and know you care. Please enjoy this article I found below.........

The practice of thank you notes extends far back into our human history. From the ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures who used papyrus slips for their messages to fifteenth-century Europe when the practice of writing and hand-delivering notes developed, thank you notes have been an active means of social interaction and exchange. [1] “A personal, handwritten, thank-you note is the finest form of expressing gratitude
1. Thank you notes cultivate thankfulness within the character of the person writing.
At its basic, thank you notes exist as a stationary function that facilitates a recipient of something to express their gratitude; perhaps a means by which a social expectation is fulfilled. However, regardless of the means for which the note is written, it serves by providing a moment in time when the one who has received can reflect on both what they’ve been given and who has gifted them. Thank you notes become almost sacramental in their function, leading the writer into greater discipline of cultivating their own grateful heart as well as providing an opportunity for reflection on God’s own goodness to that person, both by the thing received and the one who provided. One thinks of Paul’s comment to the Philippians when he says: ‘I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.’ Thank you notes, while they sit within a cultural convention, could be an act of spiritual discipline.

2. Thank you notes are objects of remembrance.
If thank you notes cultivate thankfulness in the character of the writer, they also serve as a object of remembrance for the one who receives. The thank you note reminds the receiver of several things but perhaps most significantly it can imaginatively re-inact that moment that necessitated the thank you note, further deepening the relationship between sender and receiver long after the moment has passed. The thank you note carves out a moment in time and until it is thrown away, it continues to serve its purpose of giving thanks.

3. Thank you notes reveal the abundance of beauty found in the everyday object.
Before concluding this post, I want to consider how the creator of the thank you note gives thanks in the act of creation. A commercial designer might be churning out multiple versions of a similar design; however, at some point, reflections on what a ‘thank you’ is (or is not) will have guided direction as to what ended up in the final design. And while I don’t think that all designers create with reflection at the forefront of their mind, the act of creating to facilitate someone else’s act of thanksgiving is a moment ripe for consideration of what thanks looks like. When the designer alights on the right look for the right situation, the beauty in this everyday object deepens the fullness of the experience for both receiver and giver.
credit of this artical goes to http://www.transpositions.co.uk/2010/11/giving-thanks-through-design-the-thank-you-note/