Origin Story of My Signoff Phrase

Where does my signoff phrase come from? It’s complex but I will explain it in this post. The initial inspiration was Garrison Keillor’s closing phrase from each episode of his show The Writer’s Almanac,  “Be well, do good work, and stay in touch.” I wanted something that had a similar rhythm but was uniquely mine.

I’m not sure how I thought of it but having used it for a while now, I stopped to think about what it meant to me. The first item, “Sweet dreams” I decided was because I have problems dreaming. I have sleep apnea and sometimes stop breathing as often as 95 times an hour when I don’t use my BiPAP machine. So naturally, I wish everyone something that I sincerely hope for myself.

The second phrase, “don’t forget to tell the people you love that you love them”, is a piece of advice that almost came too late to me. It is something that I haven’t always been very good at and it’s as much to remind myself to do it as it is to remind anyone else.

The final phrase, “and most important, be kind” is because I haven’t always been as kind as I should be. I realized the importance of kindness when I saw the effect that the lack of it was having on my relationships. This too is first and foremost a reminder to myself. It is good advice for everyone else too though.

So, now you know why and all that is left is to say: sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the people you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.