Aug 22, 2023 — I should probably be happily hyping the new designs we introduced last week and telling their great backstories, but something tells me to send you this longtime Cardie favorite card this evening.

Maybe I sense we all need “a good cry” because summer is coming to an end, natural disasters are not, and so many of us are concerned that someone we love is not in a good place … the neighbor who is valiantly finding his way forward without the love of his wife of 55 years. The colleague who has to concede — no matter how heart-wrenching — that it’s time her brother was moved from Memory Care to Hospice. Last Saturday, it was I who had a good cry over how much I still miss having my mom around on what would have been her 100th birthday.

“Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind” is such a great quote. Years ago, from a wonderfully woo-woo masseuse, I learned a powerful exercise that I use when I feel like I’m getting lost in everyone else’s concerns, and I’d like to share it with you here. Let me preface by admitting that the massage therapist first pointed out how challenging it was for me to relax on her table. “Your body may be here,” she said, “but where is your heart, mind, and spirit?” At first I laughed that off saying, “Yea, well, I guess I’m worrying about this and wondering about that and fearing what’s going to happen with this other thing.”

That led her to gently ask, “If you’re off somewhere worrying about all that and everyone else, who’s here taking care of you?” Hmm. “And if you don’t take care of you,” she said, “how do you propose to care for all those who seem to mean so much to you?” There is that.

“Try this,” she proposed, and wrote the following down so I can still read her crisp handwriting and feel her calming energy to this day. She said:

Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands on your belly, breathing way down into your core. While continuing the deep breathing, bring your hands to your heart. Keep your hands right there, and say quietly:

“I remember.”
(Take a deep breath.)

“I remember.”
(Another deep breath.)

“Now I remember me.”

She said to repeat the three phrases — with deep breaths in between — three times. “I remember, I remember, now I remember me.” And then notice how you’re calmed by this simple act of being there for you.

Cardie Margaret Burke wrote us several years ago that, “When my mother died, one of her friends sent me your ‘a good cry’ card and I thought it was hands-down the best card I had received. I have left it on my home office desk all this time as a reminder that it’s ok to let the waves hit when they come to you.”

It seems to us that Margaret has a great idea there, so to all orders placed this week, we’ll drop in one A Good Cry card for your own desk FREE. Because I’m guessing many of you kind-hearted Cardies will relate to something a friend once said to me. “Sometimes you just care too much.” That was right before he said, “Please don’t ever stop.”

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative


Aug 22, 2023 — I should probably be happily hyping the new designs we introduced last week and telling their great backstories, but something tells me to send you this longtime Cardie favorite card this evening.

Maybe I sense we all need “a good cry” because summer is coming to an end, natural disasters are not, and so many of us are concerned that someone we love is not in a good place … the neighbor who is valiantly finding his way forward without the love of his wife of 55 years. The colleague who has to concede — no matter how heart-wrenching — that it’s time her brother was moved from Memory Care to Hospice. Last Saturday, it was I who had a good cry over how much I still miss having my mom around on what would have been her 100th birthday.

“Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind” is such a great quote. Years ago, from a wonderfully woo-woo masseuse, I learned a powerful exercise that I use when I feel like I’m getting lost in everyone else’s concerns, and I’d like to share it with you here. Let me preface by admitting that the massage therapist first pointed out how challenging it was for me to relax on her table. “Your body may be here,” she said, “but where is your heart, mind, and spirit?” At first I laughed that off saying, “Yea, well, I guess I’m worrying about this and wondering about that and fearing what’s going to happen with this other thing.”

That led her to gently ask, “If you’re off somewhere worrying about all that and everyone else, who’s here taking care of you?” Hmm. “And if you don’t take care of you,” she said, “how do you propose to care for all those who seem to mean so much to you?” There is that.

“Try this,” she proposed, and wrote the following down so I can still read her crisp handwriting and feel her calming energy to this day. She said:

Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands on your belly, breathing way down into your core. While continuing the deep breathing, bring your hands to your heart. Keep your hands right there, and say quietly:

“I remember.”
(Take a deep breath.)

“I remember.”
(Another deep breath.)

“Now I remember me.”

She said to repeat the three phrases — with deep breaths in between — three times. “I remember, I remember, now I remember me.” And then notice how you’re calmed by this simple act of being there for you.

Cardie Margaret Burke wrote us several years ago that, “When my mother died, one of her friends sent me your ‘a good cry’ card and I thought it was hands-down the best card I had received. I have left it on my home office desk all this time as a reminder that it’s ok to let the waves hit when they come to you.”

It seems to us that Margaret has a great idea there, so to all orders placed this week, we’ll drop in one A Good Cry card for your own desk FREE. Because I’m guessing many of you kind-hearted Cardies will relate to something a friend once said to me. “Sometimes you just care too much.” That was right before he said, “Please don’t ever stop.”

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative