Your Care

A young friend texted me these words

Artist unknown

a gift from a friend once-upon-many-years-ago,

now a bit broken as we all are, but whole nonetheless

Your Care

A young friend texted me these words.
“Thank you for your care.”

Tears arose.

She hadn’t said
“Thank you for your help.”
“Thank you for your time.”
“Thank you for your advice.”

She had said
“Thank you for your care.”

I don’t know if anyone has ever named it this way for me
this thing we do for one another —
your care.

Later that day
I stood in line at the post office with five packages
and after Thomas weighed
and typed
and stickered
and stamped
package after package
I smiled at him and said,
“Thank you, Thomas.
Thank you for your care.”

And we were both re-membered to
care.

I’m practicing saying it more often.
It feels a bit uncomfortable
but
it also feels like
exactly what I need 
right about now. 

by Ellen Gabardi
July 2026

The spoken version is below:

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Hello Everyone Everywhere. Hello Anyone Anywhere. Hello Someone Somewhere.
Welcome to Containers To Hold It All.
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I’m forever trying to make sense of It All, but I’m coming to the conclusion that creating containers-of-words to hold It All is plenty enough for now.
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Love,
Ellen