When people ask us what we do for a living, they are often surprised to hear we make greeting cards. “Do people even send those anymore?” they ask (or we know they want to ask! heheh).
It’s like being creative, cultivating happiness, and spending time to take care of relationships (which is what cards and letters really are all about) might somehow frivolous.
We're happy to say that it is anything but! As 75-year Harvard Medical School study cited by Sunshine Parenting shows that "good relationships”—not wealth, status, or privilege—“keep us happier and healthier.”
When we went to the Women’s March and made our protest posters in January, it was because we believe we need keep our relationships strong and stay positive -- as Americans, as girls and women, and as human beings, regardless of where we are on the ideological or political spectrum.
What we’ve learned since then is that envisioning a positive future for America begins with each one of us. We have to see it to believe it. And we have to believe it to see it.
What does that look like?
That vision begins with taking care of ourselves, and our friends and neighbors.
It means taking the time and space to be creative. When we make space to focus and create, rather than get distracted and react, we find get grounded and are able to imagine new possibilities for ourselves and for our world.
It means treating ourselves and one other with empathy, respect, and civility. For this, we love P.M. Forni’s 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct.
It also means not being intimidated by fear, incivility, and negativity.
It means focusing every moment on making the world more positive, happy place. Because happiness is far from superficial. It is powerful.
That’s a big part of why we wrote our new book, Happy Mail (you can pre-order it here). Happy Mail is aimed at helping girls and women slow down and take the time and care to discover their creative power and share that power with their friends. Why? Because a strong social fabric has to be woven one strand -- one friendship -- at a time.
One day soon, there will be a woman president and more women in leadership roles (we've already made amazing strides, let's not forget!). Strong female leaders are going to be confident, creative, positive, generous, caring, and have a good sense of humor (because if you’re truly confident, you can laugh at yourself and make others laugh, too!).
So we invite you to start discovering and empowering your own creative voice now. Learn how to nurture and maintain deeper relationships with your friends, neighbors and fellow citizens, in person and and social media. If you do, not only will you have stronger friendships, you'll be happier and healthier, too!
And who knows? With courage, creativity, and persistence, someday the next president might be YOU. :)