Giving thanks for everything (and I mean everything)

By Debra Illingworth Greene (June 2011)

Leah Dieterich’s mother must be proud. What began during Leah’s childhood as a nudging (well, nagging) to write thank you notes has resulted in a published book.

Thanks to her mother, Leah has been writing thank you notes as far back as she can remember, “from the earliest memories I have of writing,” Leah says. In 2009, Leah began thxthxthx.com, a daily exercise in writing thank you notes – no matter how seemingly insignificant or odd the subject of her gratitude (ie. Dear Ponytail or Dear Age 30). Now, 200 of those handwritten thank you notes have been published in thxthxthx: Thank Goodness for Everything, a gift book that was published May 31 and is available through Amazon or bn.com.

On Sale May 31, 2011

“I think it’s just a politeness thing, and rightfully so,” Leah says of her mother’s strong feelings about thank you notes.  “When someone gives you something, you have to acknowledge it in a way that feels significant, or at least commensurate with the gift itself.”

Once an obligation, Leah’s thank you notes have become an exercise in gratitude. “The practice of doing them daily has really opened my eyes to more good things in the world, or increased my ability to find the good in any situation,” says Leah, whose day job is creative director and writer at an advertising agency in Los Angeles.

And she does find good in just about any situation you can imagine. When asked about the oddest thank you note in her book, Leah says, “Let’s see … off the top of my head, I have one to the Blood I Just Spit in the Sink. I thank it for reminding me that I can’t get lazy on my flossing, which I often do; hence the blood.”

Leah still writes more conventional thank you notes, mailing them the old-fashioned way, too. “I was rather famous for that before I started the blog even,” she says. “It’s a dying art, but I’m carrying its torch.”

She encourages others to write thank you notes with this advice: “They don’t have to be complicated or particularly eloquent. Just write them. It’s the act that matters.”