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Dear Subscriber First Name, Whenever I pause to reflect on all the things for which I am grateful (which - as you might imagine - I do often), it is the extraordinary people in my life that reliably fill my heart to overflowing. Every day, I am humbled and enriched by the gifts of my relationships, and among these is my abiding friendship and work with Brother David Steindl-Rast. I will never forget meeting Br. David in 2003. From across the room, he emanated a rare combination of both deep presence and lightheartedness; a childlike joy shining forth from the wisdom in his eyes. At 76 years old he embodied something I had never quite understood until I met him: he radiated aliveness. And by the time he greeted me with a hug, I was compelled to understand more. You know how some people just make you intrigued about how it is that they are who they are? You might wonder about: What they do every morning to start their day. Whose wisdom they contemplate. How they find peace. Where they are overcome with joy. When they feel reverence. Why they get brought to tears. What makes them “come alive”. It’s like seeing a gorgeous garden and wanting to know the secrets to its flourishing. Br. David was immediately like that for me; a source of wonder. And this wonder - this wonder-full man - is what awakened my passion for gratefulness, and how the practice came to blossom in my heart and in my life’s work. Growing up, I wasn’t drawn to formulas and conventions. I was more intrigued by exceptions and questions. I resisted orthodoxy and the idea of following any particular teacher or ideology. After being diagnosed with stage IV cancer, I became even more wary of universals and “cure-alls” which offered sweeping prescriptions and promises. I became more interested in unconditional, inclusive paths that would open doors to an expanded sense of possibility, which is what I came to discover in living gratefully. What I first loved so much about how Br. David taught gratefulness is that he was not “selling” anything. He didn’t need to. By his very be-ing, he embodied what gratefulness could make possible. Simply through how he showed up for life, he made the practice accessible and appealing. Br. David actually lived gratefully and this made clear to me - and millions of others - that we could trust that the process is the promise, the practice is the path. Lofty outcomes were not the point, and exclusive allegiance was not the price of admission. Living gratefully was not only for certain people and would not require particular conditions, because gratefulness is far deeper, wider, and more merciful than that. With his whole life, Br. David showed us what flourishing looks like. And - to this very day - he still does.
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