“Lorraine—the thing you have is street cred.” So said John Allard, then Chair of the community foundation board in 2009. I would never want to risk losing this credibility distinction and have built my reputation on the streets and conversations of a small town that hosts the world. People here can recognize kindness, understand the feeling of community and treat our trusting relationships like gold.

For Grassroots Gratitude, community starts, in practical terms, at the coffee shop and at the kitchen table, radiating outward into our community of communities. For us, community is more than a municipality and more than roads, buildings and streets. Communities build relatedness where people are willing to walk the walk, and welcome you when you return home. Community is an ever-evolving network that builds belonging.

Grassroots Gratitude founder, Lorraine believes that Gratitude is the glue that holds us in our place, hitching us to each other and to the world beyond. Whether the context is emotional, physical, financial, spiritual or intellectual, when we write, we realize that “it is never about just one thing” and Gratitude forces us to understand that a solid understanding of relationships brings insight into our lives, and acceptance of complexity and connectivity.