The official Dancing Deer Baking Company Blog

Each week, we honor a Deer in the Spotlight- someone who embodies characteristics that we strive after. Mindy Lockard ( @MonthlyManner on Twitter ) is this week’s Deer in the Spotlight.

Mindy is a nationally recognized etiquette guru who believes that we are responsible for the social legacy we leave behind- that manners are the key to a brighter future. Check out Mindy’s blog!

Here’s an excerpt from our interview with Mindy:

DD: Manners can be seen as taking care of small details- caring by spending the extra time to make situations better for others. Who taught you to care deeply about others by expressing interest in the brief interactions pertaining to them?

Mindy: My love of gracious living was inspired by two very important women in my life: My mother and my mother’s mother. Growing-up in a middle class home we didn’t always have money for the “finer things;” however, my mother always impressed on us the value of fine living. As the oldest of four children our home was the practice ground for gracious living. As a young child my mother was diligent about instilling the basics of kindness and respect. My mother’s confidence and conviction in the lessons she taught us allowed us to feel socially and graciously confident.

My grandmother lived a most gracious life. What I learned from her wasn’t as much about what she said but how she lived. As a lover of the written word, she wrote to me on a weekly basis throughout my late teens and early twenties. After a visit, she often would pick a small bouquet of flowers and leave them in a cup on my bedside table. Before she became ill, she would shuffle down the rows of her mobile home park in her house slippers delivering cups of flowers from her garden. She never knew a stranger and committed her life to serving others. But most of all, my Grandmother loved God and taught me the importance of treating others well out of respect and love for Him!

DD: We believe that gifting is a way of life. What is the best way to remember small details from a conversation, in order to be able to apply that detail to future interactions with a friend?

Mindy: One of the greatest gifts we can give others is the present of our presence. Not presence as in the physical, but presence in the mental. The most important way to remember details is to pay attention by asking questions and listening to the response.  When we take the time to stop and commit attention to listening to a friend we have the mental awareness to commit what they are saying to memory.