Staff Picks

A collection of favorite resources – both old and new – picked by the Gratefulness staff. This page will be refreshed monthly with “gems” which have especially moved, inspired, and engaged us…

Gratitude
A powerful exploration by David Whyte: “Gratitude is the understanding that many millions of things come together and live together and mesh together and breathe together in order for us to take even one more breath of air…”

Flourishing
Finding one’s passion and true purpose in life is essential to human flourishing. In this video, Sir Ken Robinson argues that education, organizations and communities need to be built on a model of diversity rather than conformity, so that every individual is able to discover and develop their unique talents and abilities.

Daily Grateful Living Practice Ideas
Here are 30 Daily Grateful Living Practices ranging from actions that will take you only a moment to those that will take a larger commitment of your time. We hope this list is helpful in building the habit of intentionally directing your attention to notice and appreciate the gifts of your life.

Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Speech
(May, 2016) One of the most powerful, heartfelt student speeches you will ever hear! We invite you to take 5 minutes to listen to Donovan Livingston’s spoken word poetry.

Introductions
Let’s start by telling
just one small thing
that costs us nothing
but our attention…

Encounter with God Through the Senses
Br. David writes: “God’s inexhaustible poetry comes to me in five languages: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. All the rest is interpretation – literary criticism, as it were, not the poetry itself…”

Zen Frogscape
Lang Elliott stops beside a large beaver pond and notes that quite a number of Pickerel Frogs were snoring. He decided to capture a soundscape featuring the chorus: “To my delight, a lone American Toad soon began trilling from the other side of the pond…”

We hope you enjoyed these resources. To discover more, visit our complete Library of Resources or dip into Gratefulness in Daily Life.