“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
The past couple of weeks I have been battling something between my ears. Nothing major and it took me a while to find what I think is my answer.
A little back ground …. as most of you know, if you’ve read my blog previously, I was given an amazing gift on May 11th, 2007 ….. a heart transplant.
Over the years I have sent my donor family multiple “thank you” notes …… about three years ago, I sent a thank you note through the proper channels to my donor family. About a month after sending the note I received a note from my local OPO (Organ Procurement Organization) that apparently my donor family had moved and did NOT leave a forwarding address.
I wrote about that occasion HERE – “An Emotional Time, Times Two“
In the next few months I plan on writing another “thank you” note. The effort, the energy and the emotion that goes into writing such a note can only be described as leaving a piece of my soul along with many of my tears on the paper with my words.
Since the note I received three years ago, I had sent one other “thank you” and had never heard anything from my OPO. Last week, I decided to email them and I inquired whether the donor family had ever updated their address. A few days later I had a reply that, NO, they had not updated their address and that both of my notes were still being held for them.
I wondered, if my “thank you’s” were like the proverbial tree that fell when no one was around, and I was not making a sound.
Should I write another “thank you” even though my words may never be “heard” by my donor family?
I debated this in my mind for a number of days …….. I’d like your input, if you have a thought on this.
Right now, I am leaning heavily (as I write this) towards writing that next thank you note because unlike the tree that fell in the forest, that donor family could update that address at anytime …….. and I will have missed all those opportunities to thank them.
I would write your letter and post it to your blog here. Your letter will touch many lives and that is what it is all about. One letter is always enough and if they update their address and contact you then you can send them a personal note but to put your thoughts and feelings out to all of us in my opinion is even greater.
Maybe you need to start numbering your letters, so they will read them in order.
I can sympathize with the difficulty you would have writing one. I keep trying to push myself to write one, since “someone else” hasn’t, but I get so emotional that I just freeze up.