Dedicated to my beautiful sister, Alecia, who says she loves me...and means it.

It was October 17 ...my sisters 13^th birthday.  The party was in full swing and I was the only one without a gift…. but to save the day, I picked up a card at the last possible moment…

Birthdays were a big deal at our house and there was an impressive stack of presents on the kitchen table from everyone in the family… well, almost everyone. As my sister ripped into each successive present the pressure grew until, at last, she picked up my card. She looked at me and asked in a tone that only a teenage sister can create, “No present?”  I replied in as any self respecting little brother should… I lied! “It’s in the card”

As she opened the card she read my loving inscription and then looked inside for the magic and mythical money that I never put in. She said it was empty…I was SHOCKED! We must have searched through the piles of wrapping paper for twenty minutes. Friends, the whole time she knew what you know today…. There was no money!

And yet, she forgave me…after all, I had at least remembered the card. There is something magic about the card. I am convinced that this is the primary reason that most of our elementary school career is dedicated to the fine art of card making.

                Mothers day – make a card

                Fathers day – make a card!

Valentine’s day – make a whole lot of cards!

Glitter, glue and elbow macaroni, all fashioned together to make a good impression and show how much we care

As adults, most people leave such childish things behind, but not me! I didn’t forget! Even in college…the girls LOVED them! Everything I need to tell the latest object of my affection I could put in the card!

My buddies would come over and ask me to go have a beer and play some tackle football at the intramural fields...I’ll be right there! Just need to slip on some shorts and put away my crayons…

Whether it is a Hallmark or homemade… there is something about a card!

How do I know? Because I know a beautiful girl who has saved some of my cards for over twenty years! That girl is my wife…and for her to have married me…those were some really good cards!

What is it about a card? – It is because it is an emotional snapshot… a genuine feeling in an electronic, pre-formatted age. How many times do we stop long enough to tell someone how much we care, that we are there for them, how much we love them? Not enough! But the card is all that, and more, because we can hold it and read it again and again… relive the emotion on command.

The best card I think that I ever sent was… well it was not even a card… it was a church bulletin. A note I scribbled down when I realized that father’s day was coming and I didn’t have a card. (Are you seeing a pattern here with me?) I just wrote some thoughts about what I had learned as a father and how I appreciated my Dad and his example. I can assure you, it wasn’t that profound… it was certainly the cheapest card I ever delivered! But when my father passed away a year and a half ago my brother, my sisters and I went to go through his things. And there tucked into the front of his sock drawer was my church bulletin.  I imagine him glancing at it daily as he went through the mundane procedure of putting on his socks… a daily reminder to him of how I felt. He kept that make shift card for over fifteen years. And I suspect that I will keep it at least that long now that it is in my sock drawer…

There really is something wonderful about a card!

Have you ever tried to give that “someone special” the perfect gift? Well let me tell you a secret… all they really want from us is to know that we love them … and care enough to say so.  To know that you care enough…  to put it in the card.

I love to give cards…but I love to get them even more!

Just a couple of days after my last birthday, I walked out to my mailbox and found this envelope with the familiar curve of my sister’s handwriting. It looked like a card! It felt like a card! IT WAS A CARD!

But before I could even open it my phone rang and who do you think it was? It was my sister!

Her timing was perfect! I had to ask her an important question; was there any money in it? She lied!

When I opened the card it was as I suspected… no money.

But there was this:

     “I just wanted you to know that I consider myself to be one of the luckiest sisters in the world to have a     brother like you. I love you and admire you… I am so proud of you…”

Three things I know:

            My sister tragically overrates her brother

            My sister loves me…

And she cares enough to put it in the card.