Love Notes & Intentional Gratitude (or how I was Inspired by Chanel)

There is a lovely little-known tradition in Chanel stores around the world; if a man purchases the classic Chanel handbag for the woman in his life, he is asked to write a love note to her.  For on the inside of the front flap of the bag, there is a little zippered pocket, put there by Coco herself, for the express purpose of hiding love notes.

I was lucky enough one Christmas a few years ago to receive one of these purses from the Husband (it was December 24th, he hadn’t purchased my gift, he’d known I’d always wanted one, it was the first Christmas post tumour and we were in a celebratory mood . . .).  Anyway, as I unwrapped the gift, and realized what he had done, the first thing I did was to look for the love note.  As I unzipped the little pocket, there it was, on a small piece of white paper . . . a lovely little declaration of his love for me.  And every time I use that purse, I am reminded of the little note that’s there and I feel, well, I feel loved.

So, a year ago, I was inspired by something I read to write love notes to the Husband and the kids each day for a month.  I thought it would be an awesome way to show the three of them just how much I love them.  The first day was easy.  The second, wasn’t so bad either.  By the 3rd, it was starting to get challenging.  And by the 4th, I had reduced my goal to just getting through the week of my challenge.

That is not to say that I don’t have an infinite amount of love for the Husband and the kids.  But rather, it’s hard to put pen to paper to describe these feelings – or in other words, to put the intention behind this kind of all-encompassing gratitude that I have for them.

As I continue to work with this idea of pairing my gratitude with intention, I think I will try this love notes experiment again.  Perhaps I won’t be as lofty with my goals . . . perhaps I will try a challenge like the one I ready on the Art of Manliness blog (this is an awesome post, by the way) because one note a week seems infinitely more do-able . . . perhaps I will rotate who gets the notes each week . . .but regardless of how I end up carrying out this project, it is already making me smile.  Because I know much those few words on a scrap of paper hidden in the inside of a purse can make me feel . . . and I want to give the three most important people in my life that feeling too.