Growing Community Gratitude

How does one grow community gratitude?

Community transformation Author and Advocate for Belonging, Peter Block writes: “The small group is the unit of transformation.” Block continues, “All transformation is linguistic… the shift in conversation is from one of problems, fear and retribution to one of possibility, generosity and restoration.”*

That’s refreshing food for thought as our children head back to school: All transformation is linguistic – language based and if we shift the conversation from problems to possibilities, we are going to be working our way to communities of abundance.

As we start looking for more gratitude, we begin to recognize it more easily and then we find more words to describe it and our words help grow a linguistic change. We just need to consider the conversations we want to host.

Research has proven that the best way to sharpen your grateful mindset is to find the words, pick up a pen and start writing.

After that? After writing in the privacy of your page, start talking in small groups. By sharing words and thoughts with others who are interested in learning more about gratitude and its complexity, we are moving the needle on grace, gratitude and community.

Why do we want more gratitude? Because positivity and grateful mindset help when adversity hits. Because gratitude is a leadership skill that helps in times of adversity and builds our personal resiliency. Because gratitude is grounding and helps to level your mind when the wobbles are wiggling.

Recently, I have been privileged to be part of two small group conversations.

In July, four community leaders joined me as part of my inaugural Gratitude Trifecta. The story continues, but the level of our discourse is exciting and inspiring. The word graphic attached to this post is a summary of our ‘one word closing’ ritual. Humble. Grateful. Uncomfortable. Listening. Hopeful. Pensive. Excited. Leaning into Humility. Balance. Inspired. Peers. These are some of the participants’ single word linguistic contributions to our closing ritual.

On August 25, a small group of ten people gathered for a free workshop at the Banff Public Library and we started with some basic ABC’s.

A = Accept Differences

B = Be kind. B is also for Breathe. We stood up, took six cleansing breaths, rolled our heads and shoulders and continued with..

C = Counting our blessings

The attached slide deck tells the rest of our story Banff Library Free Workshop Aug 25 v2

As I write on page 19 of An Ecology of Gratitude and continue to encourage all who will listen: “When you write in a journal and track your gratitudes, your worries recede, joys advance, and a softening happens in places that may be physical, social, emotional or spiritual.”

September 1, 2022 – keep writing your way to this next season of change and possibilities. With gratitude.

* Block Peter, Community: The Structure of Belonging. Berret-Koehler Publishers. San Francisco. 2008. Page 31