Week 3: Gratitude

Hi—how are you? It is week three, and we’re going to talk about Gratitude.

Let’s recap.

Week one was all about Compassion, week two all about Patience and week three, Gratitude. I have to say that I really exercised my Compassion and Patience over the last couple of weeks because this book thing is way crazier than I would’ve ever imagined it would have been. And we’re making some mistakes and we’re running fast and March 25th is Sunday, so we’re bustin’ tail to get everything done. You may even get this Monday and the book has already been launched. I’m not sure how quickly we’ll get this out, but at the end of the day I have been having to remind myself to love myself and to be patient as I’m going through all this new stuff that I have no idea what I’m doing and thank goodness I’ve got people in my way to help. Um, so for example, you guys got the Patience video from last week which said Week 1: Patience instead of Week Two.

So, bear with me and Angie who’s helping me every step of the way, getting things out helping with The Compassion Collective Dashboards, the book, she has been a Godsend to me. So bless her heart for helping with everything. And yeah, we’re going to have a couple of trip-ups here and there.

Gratitude, back to my grandma glasses here (I put them on in the video so I can actually read what the definition is).

Oh, and I decided I was going to change it up and get a different background because I was sort of getting sick of that wall. I didn’t really like it. So hopefully you like the change. I’ve got dogs all around me. I’ll show it to you at the end.

Gratitude, the quality of being thankful—readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. So some of the synonyms—gratefulness, thankfulness, appreciation, indebtedness, recognition, acknowledgment. So at the end of the day, what I really want you to look at when I think about Gratitude and how you should be living your life and thinking about it for the week, is being Grateful not just for things but for your health, for your connection with God, for the troubles and the trials and tribulations that you’ve been having.

Be Grateful for the good things that come out of the tragedies. So for example, my uncle just passed away a few days ago and I have to say that’s a horrible, dreadful thing to have happen. Thank goodness we were able to get the anointing of the sick and a priest to see him. And that there were a ton of people that were down there to be with him. I wasn’t able to get down there. But at the end of the day I was grateful for my family pulling together and praying and calling me and saying, can we pray? Can we pray? And this is from some of my cousins who I don’t really talk to that much. So I was grateful. I had gratitude for the situation that we were in because of the good that it was bringing and the tightness that was occurring with the love poured out by the family who were there to be by his side.

Um, I also want you all to think about being Grateful for just being alive, being grateful for being put in challenging situations. Have Gratitude for the fact that you have a massive presentation to a level at a company that you’ve never been to before. It’s pushing you out of your comfort zone. It’s making you ask for people to help you, and at the end of the day you’re going to grow from it. Be Grateful for the challenge and the stretch. Be Grateful that your children are having difficulties because they’re reaching out possibly to you or getting help from other people who can get them over these difficulties. Be Grateful for water. I want you to be grateful for one thing this week and I think, you know, as the seasons are changing, some of the areas are getting a lot warmer and a lot less harsh even Chicago. We had one of the coldest winters here and I gotta be honest with you, man, if I didn’t have heat, I mean I just kept thinking how fortunate we are.  I had a conversation with a girlfriend of mine that I can’t imagine not having heat. So that’s something that I think, you know, we should all be very Grateful for, but again, doesn’t, doesn’t hit every all of us, but water sure does and I think we’re pretty fortunate here in North America to have pretty good water. Yes, we have had our moments in our droughts and southern California and some other parts of the nation. But in the end, I think we’re pretty fortunate. So when you turn on that water or you have that bottled water to drink, or you wash you bathe and you brush your teeth and you’re feeling nice and clean, remind yourself of how Grateful you should be that you have water at your disposal. Because there are people in this world who do not, as you are well aware. So let’s just take that one thing and it will hate you upside the head, hopefully, hundreds of thousands of times this week as you think about living your life with Gratitude.

Gratitude.

Be grateful in that car. When you’re running late or you’re in traffic so that you can take a moment and be with yourself to collect your thoughts, to get ready to get into that house with the chaos of the family. Just be Grateful for all of the moments that you have. Yeah, and I’m super Grateful for you guys allowing me into your inbox every week. I hope these are helping. Please share because we are getting some conversation out there, so please share your thoughts about the topics and how it’s changing the way in which you’re looking at your life that week. And of course you don’t forget about Compassion and Patience that is hopefully something that you continue to weave through. This takes practice, this is not just a week and done, uh, those took years for me to get to this point where I sometimes actually have to stop and remind myself of what I should be focusing on in this world it is so easy to get pulled and tied and tugged and wrapped up in other stuff that is so not even important.

So again, thank you for the new, um, area that we’re at here meeting—the new scenery. I’m going to get up and I’m going to show you the audience that I have on the bed with me here so that you could see that cuz I think it’s really kind of cute. Hopefully, they don’t get up. OK. So there’s Penny. Oh no, that was not good (light fell off the camera lens—caused a loud noise and scared the dogs). And then we have Sasha and Frankie.

OK. Have a blessed and inspired day, everyone, love you. Take care.

Kendra Von Esh

Kendra Von Esh is a Speaker, Faith Coach, and Author who has a passion to help others to deepen their relationship with God and the Catholic Faith.

2 Comments

  1. Marie Sanderson on March 26, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    Another resonating composition ….Gratitude is something I always think of even though I’ve gone through some very tough times in my life. It seems to me, when I get a little blue, that I can always find someone out there who is experiencing something worse. All I have to do is turn on the news in the morning and hear about another tragedy, some of which are of epic proportion.
    This always comes to my mind when I see what others are going through……” there by the grace of God go I”. I say a prayer for God’s grace to those who are suffering….. and I say a prayer of thanks for what I do have and I am grateful.

    PS…pups are adorable !!!



  2. Kendra Von Esh on April 9, 2018 at 7:02 am

    I love your thoughts on gratitude, Marie – I find it the most challenging to be grateful for the “not-so-good” things that we have to deal with during each and every day of our lives. There are always good things to see in everything. God is everywhere and I have to remind myself to see him and to give up my suffering as well. I need to practice this more! 🙂 Have a blessed and inspired week – thanks for commenting, Marie!