GRATEFULNESS.ORG - A Network for Grateful Living

Isn't the practice of grateful living about shifting our respective and ultimately our collective worldviews and then our world visions?

In the "almost limitless number of good companions found along the way," a few stand out, and Thomas Berry was one of them.

What do a writer in Kyoto, gardens in Russia, a Muslim feminist in West Virginia, a promise in the Maldives, and Wynton Marsalis on the hardcourt have in common? Gratefulnews!

Every human being can experience true belonging, Br. David affirms in this interview on the "Way of Love."

Blessed Mother Teresa – esteemed not only for her service to the unwanted, the homeless, and the dying but also for her perseverance amidst inner torment – is this month's Gift Person.

You benefit from a fabulous four-billion-year-old legacy bequeathed by the earth. How does a grateful response to this gift look? Explore Caring for the Earth and the new "Home Project" video (scroll down to "Links").

Br. David writes about a vision for the future.

June's newsletter looks at one of the paradoxes of gratefulness: It comes to us as pure gift and even so it must be cultivated.

Alice Walker writes, "It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all." Enjoy our Father's Day (and Solstice and Graduation!) ecards.

This month's Gratefulnews celebrates the people working to restore Earth's well-being through art, creative housing initiatives, education, poetry, shared gardens, and much more.

Honor your favorite graduate with an e-card.

Br. David Steindl-Rast and Fr. Cyprian Consiglio will offer a retreat – "Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body: The Universal Call to Contemplation" – in Boulder, CO, June 27-28, 2009.

"Practicing Spirituality with Quakers," a 40-day e-course that starts June 1st, looks at how to live simply and create a more just world (scroll down to "Links").

Explore the dimensions of grateful living through this new audio download of radio host Michael Stone in conversation with Br. David Steindl-Rast.

Have you ever felt so stressed out that conjuring feelings of gratitude seemed ridiculous, perhaps even a little infuriating? Michele Wahlder writes about common obstacles to gratefulness.

Richard Schiffman's study in perspective, "Watching the Birdwatcher," captures the space between moments by the reverse feat of not trying to grasp it.

Br. David talks about peak experiences and more on this new video clip from "The Monk and the Rabbi."

Br. David's May-June Australia tour includes Brisbane, Rockhampton, Mackay, Maitland/Newcastle, Sydney, Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Perth.

May's newsletter gives us an opportunity once again to thank you for your generous support as we bring practices of grateful living to people around the world.

This month's Gratefulnews comes in all varieties: a lost Aboriginal language revived, music notation made accessible, friendship enhancing health, and hardhats going green.

Send a Mother's Day ecard to someone nurturing in your life or (in keeping with the day's origins) someone who works for peace. If your mother has passed on, light a candle in her memory.

Maria DeCarvalho writes about a fortune cookie and a "secret decoder ring" that revealed its hidden truth.

Please let your friends in far-away places know that A Good Day can now be viewed with multilingual captions (click up-arrow on video screen).

Send an Earth Day ecard, and gather fresh inspiration through our Caring for the Earth and Simple Living topics.

What does it take to entrust ourselves to a "fundamental sense of belonging to the universe"?

April's newsletter observes that we never know where a day may lead us.

"When we accept the pain and intensity that comes to us, what could have been unbearable opens us into new dimensions," write Felicia Norton and Charles Smith in this second excerpt from An Emerald Earth.

Light a Candle for the people of the earthquake-ravaged Abruzzo region of Italy.

Isn't a love that "none can part" what we long for most? How rare to be given – through this poem by George Herbert – the words to articulate it and the strength that makes it possible.

Send joy to your loved ones with Passover and Easter e-cards. For your convenience, you can schedule cards in advance.

When we urgently need to be called back to the foundation of our life, our dreams often help.

The things we tend to overlook can be our greatest sources of treasure, as this month's Gratefulnews shows.

Thanks to generously donated artwork by Carol Giantonio, we now have in our Gift Shop a dynamic, 160-page gratitude journal awaiting your creative inspiration.

We need not only a new ethic for developed nations; we need an ethic that can be shared by traditional cultures.

Did you ever think of "salvation" as meaning "healing"? It derives from the same root as "salve", writes Br. David.

Our March newsletter asks where we will find the strength for the "stride of soul" life requires.

Now and then we get asked for a little history of our work.

Our St. Patrick's Day ecards are now ready for you to send, and we invite you also to light candles for peace in N. Ireland.

If you face one of those times when everything you believed to be true is coming under scrutiny, this excerpt from An Emerald Earth can provide both solace and perspective.

Kathy Cleveland Bull writes about "A Lack of Lack," based on her experience of February's Gratefulness Gathering in Petaluma, California.

If you would like an .mp4 version (ipod compatible) of our video A Good Day to download, please contact us.

Here is help for finding what the observance of Lent – a season of burgeoning inner and outer life – means to you.

Unusual solutions to challenges fill this month's Gratefulnews.

"At Difficult Times, Dreams Arise," an excerpt from Anne Scott's Women, Wisdom, and Dreams, helps us reconnect with what is essential.

Thank you for brightening the world with more than 7,000,000 candles lit here since 2001!

February's newsletter looks at how urgent situations focus our attention.

Amy Uyematsu's poem, "Tea," honors Buddhist monk and peacemaker Thich Nhat Hanh, whose life is the essence of gratefulness.

"Each of us can decide to treat this economic recession as the 'recess from excess' that is long overdue," writes Lynne Twist in an excellent article newly included in our Simple Living resources (scroll down to "Offsite Links").

Wholeheartedness draws us into a tremendous mystery, says Br. David in these ten downloadable audio clips, the first in a Practical Meditation series.

January's newsletter focuses on Rilke's charge: “Be enthusiastic for that flame in which a thing escapes your grasp while it makes a glorious display of transformation.”

From the "Miracle on the Hudson" to unlikely friends and foodscapes, January's Gratefulnews brings you some of the best of 2009 (so far).

Listen to an interview on "Why Gratefulness Matters" with Linda Larsson and Dale Biron, board members of A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L).

In our questions about grateful living, a visitor asks, "Can a deceased loved one see what’s in your heart for them?"

This Rilke stanza, translated by Br. David Steindl-Rast, encourages us to love the turning point, even when change makes great demands upon us.

For the New Year, please let us be the first to greet you with glad tidings, through Mr. Moses.

Send a New Year's ecard!

If one of your New Year's resolutions is to be less judgmental, this guidance from Zen Abbot Norman Fischer will be of help.

Whether you miss snow or are making peace with its presence, you can design snowflakes for your friends in this new addition to our Creativity topic. (Scroll down to "Snowdays" under "Links".)

December's newsletter focuses on resources that help us live by our ideals.

A new video cut from "Many Paths, One Truth" (1977) by Oscar-nominated director John D. Goodell looks at the part each of us can play in building a more peaceful world.

Common Sense Spirituality, Br. David's new anthology with a foreword by Sr. Joan Chittister, makes a wonderful holiday gift and inspiring New Year's meditations.

Take advantage of a rare opportunity to reorient yourself. Sign up for the Ocean of Gratitude Cruise with Michael Beckwith, Rickie Byars Beckwith, and more.

How can we keep the spirit of upcoming holidays without feeling manipulated into wanting more than we need? Meredith Jordan describes an intriguing approach in "27 Things."

Behind-the-scenes prayers in an unexpected setting. A deportee bringing street dance and lessons about life to boys in Cambodia. A Pakistani woman building an oasis of hope. Let these and more Gratefulnews stories lift your spirits.

Együtt ragyogová tehetjük az egész világot: "Together we can set our whole world aglow." Our gratitude to Miklós Cseszneky De Milvány for translating our "Light a Candle" feature into Hungarian.

Please join us in a candle vigil for Mumbai.

Join Br. David Steindl-Rast, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Tessa Bielecki for an inspiring retreat in Petaluma, California, February 20-22, 2009. Registration is still open!

What inner stance and outer actions can we take amidst the current financial crisis? You can find insights into these questions in our Fear/Peace and Simple Living topics.

If visiting the Angels of the Hours has brought you a measure of peace, you will enjoy this Round Dance slideshow with the full-length Fra Angelico paintings and accompanying quotes.

Helen Siegl's mosaic of Advent images speaks of the peace for which our hearts long.

Happy 8th Anniversary of Gratefulness.org! Celebrate with our November newsletter.

Gratefulnews looks at promise: in civil rights, Muslim-Christian relations, Miriam Makeba's legacy, and the spiritual pursuits of young people.

Our Children and Elders topic has a new link to a video of a golfing prodigy whose life is inspiring for more reasons that just his remarkable swing.

Have you seen our Gift Shop? Your purchase of journals, t-shirts, greeting cards, and other holiday gifts helps support our free services (thank you!).

Enjoy two newly posted videos of Br. David's teachings, one at the Thanks-Giving Square World Advisors Meeting in 1996 and one from the new Living Yoga movie.

Thanksgiving ecards are ready for your expressions of gratitude to family and friends.

Margaret Wakeley expresses appreciation for a special dimension of reading.

During this Thanksgiving season, we continue to add to our "In the Press" page, where you will find excellent articles about gratitude and our work.

Sign up for a new e-course that allows you to practice spirituality with Joan Chittister, a theologian, Benedictine sister, social psychologist, communication theorist, and author of more than 30 soul-stretching books.

A five year old enamored of words can plumb the heights and depths of "Infinity and God," as Richard Jones' new poem shows.

California? Costa Rica? Your own backyard? Wherever you want to go in the world, you are likely to find gratefulness there

What is it about A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L) that draws people back time and again? Our Annual Report explores the reasons and underscores the value of your ongoing moral and financial support.

At a time in which many people’s circumstances and spirits are plummeting, our October newsletter asks: "Is there any good word that can be said?"

Choose from many Halloween and other seasonal ecards as well as our wider selection.

October's Gratefulnews takes a look at resourcefulness: In international mediation, through a prisoner's blog, at a benefit festival, and amidst nature's wealth.

At a critical turning point in our economic history, here's a bit of perspective on prosperity.

"The rhythm of the Great Heart of God has been drowned out by the cadence of hubris, greed, and violence," writes Environmental Studies Professor David W. Orr, "and we should ask why."

Listen to ten new audio clips (available for mp3 downloads) which explore topics like putting prayer on a human level and embodying what we stand for.

Common Sense Spirituality, Br. David's new anthology of meditations with a foreword by Sr. Joan Chittister, is now in print for you to enjoy and to offer as a gift to friends and family.

Send an ecard blessing for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year).

Our September newsletter asks: How can we allow phases of our lives to come to an end and embrace what is emerging without fear?

How universal is gratefulness? Our response to this question now includes an insightful description of grateful living as an encompassing ethic for our times.

Don't miss the new e-course on the practice of Peacemaking in the links under our "Fear and Peace" topic.

Celebrate the coming of Spring (in the southern hemisphere) and Autumn (in the northern hemisphere) with Equinox ecards.

If you are intrigued by ways that technology can support spiritual practice, you will want to read this article about cell phones that ring for prayer times during Ramadan (check out other newly posted Gratefulnews, too!).

Sister Michaela Terrio's response to a question about self-sacrifice in the Catholic tradition offers insight which anyone, from any background, can appreciate.

"How can we truly be with dying, this invisible road of initiation that will open for all of us?" asks Roshi Joan Halifax in this second excerpt from her new book.

Our August newsletter gives you a framework for soul-searching about the obvious and hidden changes in your life.

The sound on Angels of the Hours is now updated to Flash/mp3 format. Now more people can enjoy the European bells and monastic chants accompanying this feature.

If eating a tomato sandwich can teach us to live in the here and now, to savor the immediate experience, with thanksgiving, then that experience can connect us with divine grace.

Check out our Religious Harmony topic to find a new e-course about the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (scroll down to "Links").

What does it take to sustain a community? This month's Gratefulnews looks at this question from multiple perspectives.

"What rituals do we have in our culture that denote and legitimize our transformative passages?" asks Joan Halifax in Part 1 of a two-part excerpt from her new book, Being with Dying.

Did you know that we offer a myriad of resources for starting your own local group on grateful living practice? Visit our Groups page to learn how!

This powerful pledge fosters the attitudes necessary to bring about a world at peace.

Is it wiser to be visionary or practical? We don't need to choose, according to M.C.Richards: We can be both, "weightless and weighted."

July's edition of Gratefulnews is all about rescue.

Looking for an event near you? Be sure to visit our newly updated page of workshops, retreats, and other adventures. You will also find a range of ways to connect with kindred spirits through our Community portal.

Life's contradictions are often exactly what save us, allowing us to fly beyond limitations. In "Jitterbug", poet Joyce McAllister plays contrasts off each other: brittleness and speed, refusal and abandon, limping and flight.

"Every moment we have more than enough—if we are open to receive," writes Gunilla Norris.

Did you ever consider that "by simply making a little space inside of nowhere, we can transform it into NOW HERE"? This and other insightful word plays await you in these X-Z keywords.

What do we do when we have loads that we can’t imagine carrying for another step? June's newsletter offers perspective.

This banner by Claire Prucher Epperly and poem by Stephen Levine both capture a "terrible delight."

In Grateful News: Marveling at what remains, coexisting without losing our uniqueness, older brains growing wiser, and a disarmingly honest approach to poverty reduction.

Celebrate the Solstice (Friday, June 20th) by sending seasonal ecards to friends and family.

The flyer for Br. David and Chungliang Al Huang's evening lecture in Zuerich is now available. There is a wait list for the preceding weekend retreat at Mattli, which filled rapidly.

"To fully enter into the movement of Reality": This goal for which many of us long can become surprisingly approachable in the face of terminal illness, as Jessie Dolch's poem shows.

Pathways to experience the Divine, grace as cosmic wisdom flowing between thoughts: Br. David touches upon these topics and more in video clips from the 2007 Greek Isles trip.

Our May newsletter looks at what to do when life doesn't turn out as you expected.

Enjoy magical performances by Jane Hirshfield, Coleman Barks, Drew Dellinger, Roger Housden, Annette Cantor and more, through free video clips of the Poetry of Gratefulness event and an opportunity to order the DVD or CD.

Who can measure the significance of an "ordinary" life? Daria Donnelly's – as a mother, wife, and editor whose life was cut short by a fatal illness – was surely a gift, reminding us not to take each other for granted.

What can we do to ease the suffering that clings to our image of perfection?

This month you can find Grateful News covering the gamut from a hopeful diplomatic shift to an intrepid role model, from malaria protection to a long-overdue reunion.

"We can escape from absurdity by learning to listen to the word in everything we encounter," including these new keywords: way, wonderment, word, and work/play.

Bring new light to your gratefulness practice through the offerings in our April newsletter.

Gain courage from the thousands of organizations working to Light Up the World. If you have one to recommend which is not yet on our map, please let us know.

"There is a mercy making its way/up through the ocean of the earth/to the shores of our feet," writes Stephen Levine.

Light a candle for Tibet and the universality of the Tibetan people's struggle (learn more).

Stop by our Caring for the Earth topic and check out what's new! The resource links now include "12 Steps to Practical Problem Solving" by Paul Polak, an innovator in creative solutions to complicated social problems.

Jane Addams connected the dots between service to humanity and a strong pacifist stance, even when Teddy Roosevelt – whom she had considered a friend – denounced her as “the most dangerous woman in America.”

You can now view six video clips of Br. David's 2004 interview at the Synthesis Dialogues in Rome, including his thoughts about a life-preserving and healing Godview.

Our "At Home in the Body" topic has another new offering: to neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's powerful story of recovery and awareness after a stroke. (Scroll down to Links on this page.)

Equinox blessings to you!

In this month's Grateful News: a colorful Vietnamese pilgrimage; the work skills of blind professionals; help for writing thank-you notes; a courageous woman alleviating the pains of war; and how compost can protect against global warming.

Our sister site, Spirituality & Practice, is offering an e-course on "Practicing Spirituality During Illness," April 1-May 10, 2008. To learn more, visit our "At Home in the Body" topic and scroll down to "Links."

Visit our video section, which now includes an hour of teachings by Br. David and Joan Halifax Roshi on gratefulness, compassion fatigue, and letting change guide you; plus a short, inspiring video on peace.

"May you always walk in sunshine. May you never want for more." And may you always find the perfect e-card for St. Patrick's Day, the turning seasons, and Easter.

Imagine needing only a spoon to get through life!

Join us in April for a retreat in West Virginia or come to Switzerland with us in September!

Thank you for brightening people's lives through more than five million candles lit since the beginning of our Light a Candle feature.

February's newsletter looks at some of the fascinating contradictory truths around us.

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