Elevate your Gratitude Practice
Write with focus. Declare your values. Reframe your story.
Essential Requirements: Time. Space. A pen. A blank page. An open heart. A curious mind.
What is Grassroots Gratitude?
Grassroots Gratitude is a social purpose venture with one BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): to shift our relationships to others and to the planet by building habits that focus our attention and caring about our things that matter.
Founder Lorraine Widmer-Carson believes that writing in the privacy of your journal is a good place to start making changes. With positivity and a deeper understanding of your personal reasons for being grateful, everyday leaders become more reflective, confident, considerate, and resilient in the face of challenge and chance.
Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why Grassroots Gratitude offers insights and resources to support a gratitude practice that is as individual and unique as you are. The resources on this site are Lorraine’s legacy gifts to you, the everyday change makers. Let’s get started.
Offering Educational Support Services
Pay attention. Find gratitude. Make notes. Take Action.
1:1 Mentorship
Online sessions, customized and tailored to the needs of individuals and small writing groups.
Workshops
Workshops for individuals and teams curious about normalizing a writing practice and build a culture of empathy, productivity, and positivity.
Speaking
Passionate about the twin topics of writing and gratitude, Lorraine inspires creativity, insight and self-understanding. Let’s talk.
Books
Two books full of prompts that encourage readers to recalibrate with writing habits that exploring the power of gratitude.
About Lorraine Widmer-Carson
Hi, I’m Lorraine.
With over 10,000 hours of morning musings, I’ve been honing my writing practice since 1993. I am a seasoned journal writer, and by some measures, a master of the craft. My daily habit of thoughtful introspection and written reflection has kept me grounded in my commitments to family and community while also working in a variety of leadership roles. Writing, I have also discovered, is also a way to connect to the soul.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I put my head down to read, research write and explore the world of science that informs our current understanding of how writing longhand holds transformative powers. I also offered various workshops online, testing and proving to myself that writing longhand combined with an insistence on finding our reasons to be grateful can be used as a One-Two power punch.
In November 2021, I launched An Ecology of Gratitude: Writing your way to what matters.
In June 2022, Grassroots Gratitude was registered as a business that offers “Educational support services”
In November 2023, I launched a second book: Gratitude Ignition Guide: Notes to My Everyday Self.
Writing, reading, spending time alone, and facilitating conversations keeps me excited and energized to continue my legacy journey. This passion project intends to cultivate confidence, hope, optimism and possibilities in the world, infused with a spirit of “great-fullness”.
By working with me, you will glimpse ways to infuse your thoughts with more abundance, less scarcity. By harnessing the power of positivity, creativity, gratitude, and innovation, we can find new ways to tackle the big issues of our times. Clearly there are complex and challenging issues facing us. By strengthening our social relationships, our connections to each other and the universe, we can build more supportive networks and get climbing.
Are you ready to explore how writing, creativity and gratitude can add kindling to your fires? Get in touch today.
Gratefully yours,
Our Values
Integrity
“Lorraine: the thing you have is street cred.” So said John Allard, in 2009, as Chair of the Board of the Banff Community Foundation. I would never want to risk losing this “street cred” distinction and have built my reputation on the streets o my home town and in conversations that acknowledge our global responsibilities as we host the world. People here appreciate kind deeds, understand the word “community”, value our role as hosts and treat our trusting relationships like gold. It’s how small towns work.
Community
For Grassroots Gratitude, community starts, in practical terms, at the coffee shop, on the telephone, at the kitchen table, and radiates outward into our community of communities. Community is more than a municipality and more than roads, buildings and streets. Communities share values and relationships where people take action, walk the walk, and welcome you when you return home. Community is an ever-evolving network that builds belonging and trust.
Trust
It’s been said that relationships move at the speed of trust and that trust begins when confidence ends. As Stephen M.R. Covey writes: “Trust is a function of both character (which includes integrity) and competence.” With an honest journal writing habit, you have no choice but to learn to trust yourself and lean on your relationships in times of joy, times of turmoil with a high degree of trust — and personal accountability
Kind Words
“I recently reconnected with Lorraine at a 50-year class reunion and was reminded why she was such a great choice as Head Girl for the class of ’74. She is a natural leader. Her compassionate wisdom and humour always shine through. She writes beautifully from the heart and has developed a scientific approach to journaling with a lens of gratitude. Her workshops help others to discover a disciplined approach to journaling.”
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Susan Jasper
Telling Tales Festival, Founding ED
“At Rocky Mountain Soap Co., we believe strong leaders are first able to lead themselves and that journaling builds clear, growth-oriented thinking. I’m excited to work with Lorraine, master journal writer and gratitude thought leader, whose skills and experience will enable us to unlock the secret strength of personal leadership, and simultaneously develop a caring and growth-minded workplace culture.”
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Karina Birch
CEO and Co-Owner, Rocky Mountain Soap Co.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in your journaling course. The weekly group sessions proved to be both inspirational and motivational. I really enjoyed the in-session activities where we took time to write in our journals, and share, as desired. These sessions with strangers were not uncomfortable in any way. Lorraine, as the instructor, you are a positive and powerful motivator and I always walked away with a more upbeat and relaxed outlook.
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Beverley Biggar
Retired Educational Consultant, Gratitude Trifecta Participant, 2024