Gratitude Letter and Visit

            The challenge for me with the Gratitude Letter and Visit exercise was to think of someone locally for whom I hadn’t already done this because I tend to be quite acknowledging of the people in my life.  Then I thought about my former office manager, a woman named Ruth.  She still works for the company I used to own and operate, although I’ve since sold out and gone back to school.  We have maintained our friendship although we don’t see each other often.  As a boss, I was frequently annoyed by her because she moves at a much slower rate than I do and is chronically 15 minutes late to work.  She also has a demanding daughter and grandchildren who often called her during the day to talk about things I considered trivial.  I never considered Ruth one of my best employees, but she was very loyal and always brought her keen sense of humor to the job with her.  My life back then was a crazy roller coaster of high octane stress and I know I was often very difficult to work with but she hung in with me through thick and thin.