Tell a Parent They're #Doingood

Sometimes, I want to cheer. Maybe even have a dance party.
 
I get exuberant when the message that is at the heart of Leave Nothing Unsaid is shared in a moving way.
 
Recently, I was dancing and cheering after seeing a new Minute Maid video entitled “The Holiday Store with Nothing to Sell.”
 
Minute Maid has run an ad campaign for the last several years entitled #doingood. With no apologies to Strunk and White (shouldn’t it really be #doingwell?), the premise of the campaign is to tell parents they’re doing a better job than they think.
 
For the most recent video, a pop-up store was opened in Chicago that encouraged and helped children write letters of heartfelt appreciation to their parents, and then gift-wrapped the letters as holiday gifts.
 
Yes, yes, yes.
 
It’s what every parent longs to hear. And the emotional reactions captured in the video say it all.
 
“You’ve done a good job.”
 
“I’m grateful for you.”
 
“Thank you for always being there for me.”
 
“You’re the kind of person I wish to be: kind, compassionate, hard-working and always willing to help others.”
 
Please take 3 minutes and watch this video. And then pull out a piece of paper and write your parent a letter.
 
What if your parent is no longer living? Consider writing a letter to them anyway. Even if you didn’t have the opportunity to tell a parent what they meant to you, unlocking your heart and expressing your feelings on paper will be therapeutic.
 
Just today, a story was shared across the nation about a seven-year old boy from Georgia who writes a letter every year to his father who was killed when the child was only four. The boy puts the letter in a balloon and releases it, hoping that it will make it’s way to his father in Heaven.
 
This year, someone found the balloon and the boy’s letter 20 miles from where the balloon was released. How precious and heart wrenching that the little boy so desperately wants to communicate with his deceased father.
 
And what a reminder to not take our living parents for granted. To tell them, while we can, what they mean to us.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, this Christmas season, if each of us wrote a heartfelt letter to our parents? Gratitude is good for our souls, and every parent longs to know that they’ve done a good job.
 
Thank you, Minute Maid, for #doingood. Thank you for the inspiration.