Footfalls, Full Response, and Fostering Gratitude

Today I am grateful for the newest addition to my extended family-a healthy son born to my nephew and his wife. I am also grateful for phone conversations I was able to have yesterday.

One more blog post about 99 Blessings. After the book came out, a contest to write the 100th blessing was announced on the website www.gratefulness.org.

Here is the description of the website on the "About Us" page:

A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L) provides education and support for the practice of grateful living as a global ethic, inspired by the teachings of Br. David Steindl-Rast and colleagues. Gratefulness-the full response to a given moment and all it contains-is a universal practice that fosters personal transformation, cross-cultural understanding, interfaith dialogue, intergenerational respect, nonviolent conflict resolution, and ecological sustainability.

What a wonderful description and what a wonderful definition of gratefulness that is included. But can gratitude really foster all of those things? I think so. I have focused more on the personal trans-formation aspect, but I can actually check off a couple other areas on that list.

Why not give it a try world? A solution to our problems and it doesn't even cost money. If we each do our part today, we may be able to build some momentum.

Back to that contest. I entered a blessing about footfalls. The idea came into my head as I was driving down the road one day. I let it brew for a few days and then wrote a draft. Unlike Brother David, I did some revising. I am humbled to say that my blessing was one of twelve, out of over 200 sent in, selected to be posted on the gratefulness.org website. You can read the twelve blessings here.

And I was thrilled to receive a signed copy of 99 Blessings. These handwritten words from Brother David were included:

"May you walk ever more deeply into the joy of grateful living, inspiring those whom you meet on the path."

Let us appreciate the growth and understanding that come one step at a time as we walk a path lined with gratitude.

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