When I woke up this morning, yes I wake up early, I started thinking about relationships. Not particularly familial or extended family relationships, but those that you come to know through your extra-curricular or outside activities. For me I especially think about those relationships that I have developed through the course of this program.

I have the pleasure of hearing from people from all over and outside the country regularly. Some I have been in contact with since almost the beginning. A few I have met and some I have only conversed with through email or other social medial channels. I have come to learn about your reasons for participating, issues that drive you to devote your time to your art and craft and things that just pop up in your life from time to time. We have shared life events, sickness, heartache, passing of family and many other things that we encounter throughout our lives. These interactions were an unintended happening in this program and one that has become very special to me.

We have over 17,000 followers on Facebook and this blog. I have met a handful of you personally and yet I feel every day I wake up to a community of people that have become my second family. We have created a place where I really belong, feel appreciated and know that together we are going to do something special before the week is over. For those that I have actually met in person, those meetings are incredible. It is never like I am meeting strangers for the first time. It is more like I am meeting old friends and family whom I just haven’t seen for a while.

Often when we receive packages of cards you have little notes, words of encouragement, pictures, letters letting me know how you are doing or other items enclosed with your cards. You don’t know how special those are to my soul. It is also why I try and write a personal note on every receipt that you receive or a separate card welcoming you to the Bring Smiles family.

The world is a little crazy right now and we have worked hard to create a community that is a safe place, devoid of politics and issues that tend to divide rather than bring us together. We all do what we do because we have a common purpose to make the world a little better, in our case “one card, one smile at a time”. We strive to teach children the importance of remembering those that paved the way for us. We provide individuals a way to give back when they might otherwise not have the means. We lift each other up through comments on card postings and recognize the talent and beauty of the craft that our card artists and decorators possess. We have created a community for good that strives every day to make a small dent in a very large need.

Life brings us all kinds of relationships. Some good, some bad. Some healthy, some not so. When it brings us the kind of mutually beneficial relationships that we have in this program, we have to recognize that it is a gift that we must always cherish, nurture and celebrate. I give thanks for each and every one of you daily. Together, in our little world, we are making a difference in the broader world and for that you should be so proud. I know I am so very proud of all of you.

Have a great weekend and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron